My Artist Inspired

Goddess was dressed up over the weekend in her lovely hand-me-down Pocahontes costume. We are lucky enough that her Godmother's daughter is 7 years old than her and we received a lot of her fun hand-me-downs. I love seeing her do her little fashion shows. It is one of my favorite things about having a daughter.

When tassles came off her dress she pouted for a moment than got to work completely inspired.

I love the one of her checking the colors on her sleeve and that first one and how much she is concentrating. When she is in the zone we just leave her to it.

Here is the finished product! Yup, looks just like her.

365 Day Challenge Day 3 - Light Reflection

Moving along with my 365 I mean 366 Day Photo Challenge since it is a Leap Year.

Day 3 brings some beautiful light reflections from one of my Christmas decorations. We were going to take the tree down on Sunday, but I needed one more day. I seriously love having it in the room this year. Usually I am ready to get it out and get my living room back but this year I really want it to stay. The lights this year just bring me peace. Even during the day, it is beautiful with the light reflections that dance on the wall as the sun shines through the garland.

I took about 5 photos of this reflection and this is my favorite.

Since there is so much red in there, I decided to use it as my Ruby Tuesday too!

Fat Boy Chronicles Released on DVD Today

Once again I am reviewing a Dove.org Family Approved movie. They have never let me down either, Dove movies are family friendly and appropriate for all ages.

The 411:
Obesity is something I am extremely sensitive about. Growing up with overweight parents my mother was extremely overweight and my dad yoyo'd all the time. My sister grew up hearing all the horrible names and sayings kids say to kids who are different than them.  She is now a very comfortable, confident, overweight woman but as children, it hurt me to hear the kids say such terrible things to her.  I completely empathize with Jimmy.

Jimmy is a sweet faced boy starting a new school who is teased by not only the kids in school but by his own sister.  My heart hurt watching him teased in the locker room by the other boys. School is hard enough but so many children are never taught how to be accepting of others.

Even the adults in the movies, like the teachers and parents of friends are just plain rude and mean. Which is just disgraceful but very real. My sister no longer speaks with my grandmother because so many never realize that their words effect people.

One of Jimmy's teachers gives an assignment about keeping a journal which becomes the narrative basis of the movie. We get to hear Jimmy's thoughts throughout the movie about his real feelings.

It broke my heart watching Jimmy struggle with his feelings and his emotions. If nothing else, I would hope a movie like this would show kids how NOT to treat others.

After his doctor tells him he is only 14 and 188 pounds that he is a little overweight. Jimmy tells the doctor about the students and teachers making fun of him and the he doctor explains to him that if he doesn't lose weight teasing will be the least of his problems.

Jimmy starts a weight loss plan on his own with a goal. He starts running and eating better. 

My favorite parts of the movie are how supportive and encouraging his parents are. His father running with him and his mother meeting him at the end of his runs. Very cute! Everyone needs support.
 

While the message of this movie is about bullying and the affect it has on others, there was so much more to it. All of the young characters have flaws. One girl is a cutter, the popular kid has trouble in school, Jimmy's best friend Paul has an alcoholic father who ignores him. Underneath we all have problems that make us weak, that hurt our hearts, that make us different, but if we learn to accept others differences and not see them as faults we will all be better off. 

Jimmy has a lot to deal with but thanks to the love of his parents, friends and even an ex bully he comes out on top in the long run.

Positives of the movie:

• Parents who are there for their kids
• Families who go to church together
• Friendship
• Perseverance
• Will power
• Commitment
• Journaling
• Learning acceptance

The young actors in this movie do an incredible job especially by Christopher Rivera!

My Christmas Blues

My Decorations that is! I rarely get the blues and I thank my children for that because after I became a mom, my whole attitude changed. As someone who used to stress constantly and feel nervous, lonely, upset, afraid, blah, blah, I realized I was spending too much time on things I had no time for. Life is short and every day is a blessed day. Why stress over things I have no control over? The only blues I ever get now are the ones that I pay for like these Christmas ornaments.

As you can see, we are a Giant house. My husband has been a Giant fan since he was about Handsome's age. Handsome has no choice right now...the kids cheer for the Giants with Teach every game. We shall see what happens when they get older because Teach's dad is a diehard Jet fan.

We are also very patriotic here. This is a popular ornament with my kids.

365 Day Challenge Day 2 - Goddess' Ornament

When I was a kid my parents allowed us to pick out an ornament every year. We would head to Adams and pick an ornament that spoke to us. Whatever that would be for a young child. Sometimes it was an elf or a cat. I haven't done this with my kids yet mostly because I haven't found a place that sells ornaments other than Hallmark and also because ornaments are extremely expensive these days.

I love the idea of an eclectic tree and find trees with the same ball pattern over and over beautiful but boring so I have occasionally purchased ornaments for the kids. This is one of my favorites that I bought for Goddess. It is just so cute with its little angel wings and the red hat! Love it. The wings say, Always Believe.

I believe! DO you?

365 Day Challenge Day 1 - Doll Face

Goddess asked for Monster High Dolls this year. It was what she mentioned anytime anyone asked her. I love them too and was happy to pick up a few for her this year from her Aunt Marta. Marta sends the money and I pick up goods.

Tomorrow the tree comes down so I took some photos of it today. I will really miss it. I love the feeling of the house when the lights are on and the bokeh effect of the lights in the background.

So on day 1 of my 365 day challenge, I am sharing a photo of Spectra Vondergeist . Isn't she pretty?

Happy New Year

Wow 2012 can you believe it!?

So, if we believe those who have interpreted the Mayan Calendar, December 21, 2012 will be Doomsday. Doomsday, the end of the world. The end of humanity. Scary thought right?!

Is this something that you worry about? If it was true how would you live your last months?  I would want to not change a thing. I wouldn't run up my credit cards, I wouldn't use all my savings (as if there is one), I wouldn't say goodbye or make peace with the inevitable. I would love to take my kids to Disney if possible. But on the 21st, I would sit with my family as I do everyday and just be. No reason to stress over what I have no control over. I would want it to be swift and fast. Painless and than nothing!

Since I am choosing to believe that the historians are wrong and that on December 22nd, the hoopla dies down and everyone rejoices as they wake to a new sun. A day like any other but more special because it was to be the end. Hopefully upon waking more people will rejoice in the gift that is life and not waste it by being jealous, hateful, closed off, close minded, resentful or just plain old mean. Hopefully like the Grinch their hearts will grow three sizes that day.

Fear not my friends. The Mayans do not believe the end is near....in fact, on April 8, 2011 they addressed the world with a Mayan message.

Not lost on me is the fact that my mother was gone 33 years that day.

33 is significant in many ways

• The divine name Elohim appears 33 times in the story of creation in the opening chapters of Genesis.
• Lag Ba'omer is a minor Jewish holiday which falls on the 33rd day of the Omer
• Jesus's age when he was crucified in 33 A.D., according to many Christian traditions, though not verified historically.
• According to Al-Ghazali the dwellers of Heaven will exist eternally in a state of being age 33.^[3]
• Jesus performed 33 recorded miracles
• 33 is not only a numerical representation of “the Star of David,” but also the numerical equivalent of AMEN: 1+13+5+14=33.

INTERESTING and ...Amen to that.

• Pope John Paul I, the 33-day pope. One of the shortest reigns in papal history, and it resulted in the most recent 3-pope year.
• the highest degree in the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

Whether or not you believe Doomsday will be December 21, 2012, you cannot deny that this world needs change. It is completely out of balance and gets scarier every day.

My hope for 2012 on a personal note is that I will fear less, do more, love more, learn more, make more, see more, live more!

My hope for the world is that more people will do the same.


Live in peace everyone for tomorrow is a gift. Breathe, love, live, and find peace in your heart.

Cub Scouts Christmas Skits and Cookie Exchange

Oh what a night....hanging with a bunch of boys as they gear up for a sugar fest of "homemade cookies" was a blast especially since I was hanging with one of my girlfriend's husbands. Frank Sr is a trip. Reminder to self: always sit with Frank! He is so much fun and has enough energy for all of us.

All the Scout Dens performed a skit or sung. Our Den is lucky enough to have two amazing leaders. One is the more authoritative figure. He keeps the boys in line in a fun, often sarcastic way while the other, is more relaxed, very sweet and easy. It is the perfect balance.

Handsome's Den decided on a skit centered around Santa losing his reindeer and when he fears they were eaten by a polar bear spotted near by, he heads out searching and hoping they are OK. He and his elfs happen upon a house in the woods, There is a ruckus inside, when he knocks the reindeer open the door and shout surprise. They weren't eaten, they were throwing Santa a surprise party....I love how the story came to life with the boys tossing out ideas and they were finally tossed together by one of the Den leaders who is a writer. He showed it to the boys on his iPad which was pretty cool. All the boys now want one.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the amazing cookies but I can tell you the homemade only theme went right out the window. There were Entenmann cookies there, plus a bunch of other store bought names.  Nothing against store brought, Entenmanns are some of my favorites but why did I spent 2 hours baking 3 dozen cookies! Ugh!

It was a really good time!

The Reindeer screamed surprise and invited Santa into the party. Handsome looks like he has no idea what he is doing on that stage. Basically he kept hiking his pants up all night. His belt was on but he didn't make it tight enough. Poor kid was also tired. When you get up at 5:30 this is bound to happen.

After the skit the boys received their respective badges! Handsome was thrilled to get one. I wasn't since I had sent over 25 different things I thought for sure he would have quite a few. Asked his Den leader who I had to pay to get my son decorated. He told me he would explain it to me later. I am still waiting. Hey, if I need to grease the palm, I will.

Heading up to get his award. He was thrilled!

After this, Santa came in with a bag full of Box Derby cars that the boys need to do for January. Umm...have no idea what that is so I will be handing it off to the Teach. I take him to these things, he can do the project!

Breakfast With Santa

While out and about with the kids two weeks ago I ran into the Mayor who sweetly mentioned to the kids at least 5 times about a Breakfast With Santa and asked if they were going. I was well aware and had done it with the kids in the past but it is never worth the cost for us. The kids eat nothing and I get sick each time I but since they had answered her Yes when she kept saying are you going, I was strong armed into it. It is a good time; rushed but still nice considering I know about 85% of the folks there. There is something to be said about living in small towns. You always run into friends.

We went in and paid our $16.00 or whatever it was. ate, did some shopping, got our photo taken and then I snapped a few while the kids were talking to the guy in the red suit. He is really nice and has been the Santa around all month so the kids keep seeing the same guy. Really nice so there is little confusion for the younger children. While my kids know this isn't Santa, they know he can tell the "BIG" guy what they want so they did. It is always fun to listen in but I did allow them their private time too. Wish I could have had them wearing a wire so I could listen to what they were talking about but everyone deserves privacy, even my kids.

Princess Recovery By Jennifer L. Hartstein PsyD

The 411: As the mom of a 6 year old spitfire and a Daisy leader to 10 girls I love reading books about creating balance and confidence in young girls. I worry about the preteens in my life who seem to be going through so much already. As a young girl, (and sometimes still do) confidence was something I completely lacked. There was no one protecting, monitoring or filtering out what I saw or heard. I see it now with so many of my female friends, family and more who ask young kids if they have a boyfriend, or girlfriend in school and the kids are only 4 - 12 years old. So many think it is cute  when young children have a crush or wear "sexy" clothes. Personally I find it repulsive. When Goddess was a toddler and anyone said she was pretty, I would follow with she is smart too! Little girls grow up hearing things like "pretty, sexy, thin, etc" and these words sit with them and if they are not these things or if they are, they feel THIS is what matters. Dr. Hartstein's method doesn't have to be followed to a T but it is a great place to start.

Raising a smart, strong, empowered girl starts with what she is learning at home. Check yourself and make sure you are sending the most positive message. Evaluate your own morals. Girls grow up way to fast.

I love the age appropriate break down in each section too. From ages 2-3, 4-5, 6-8 you can help your daughters create a strong sense of self which will enable them to make the right decisions that will help them the rest of their lives.

My hope for Goddess is that she keeps your spirit. She is funny and doesn't conform. She knows what it means to have a good heart, to help people, and she is confident in her mastered abilities. However, as a people pleaser she is often hurt by words like, "I don't like you," "You are not my friend," "You are stupid", the annoying things other kids say when they don't have others telling them how to be a nice person. I simply ask her, "Are you stupid?" or "do they talk to you?" When she says No or yes respectively I remind her that words only hurt us if we let them. If you know you are NOT those things or Don't do those things, ignore them.

I have a long way to go to make sure that Goddess comes out empowered on the other side. I can only pray that I am doing right by her. Hopefully by spending time with her and allowing her to be herself, while filtering out the things she doesn't need to know or see, plus the help of Princess Recovery she will be a strong, wonderful woman who doesn't NEED to feel validated by others. I can only pray.

My daughter is my princess but I hope she grows up knowing she can still wear a tiara if she wants under her firefighter uniform if that is what she chooses to be.

Let your girls be who they are going to be, but lead the way with good healthy morals that teach her compassion, responsibility, appreciation of inner beauty over outer beauty!

The Daisys Do Some Day Trips

Well in this case they do night trips...we meet at 6:30 p.m. Me and my fearless co-leader took our Daisy's to the Police Station and Fire House earlier this month. Our Daisy's are a fun troop of girls including my own but I love all of these girls especially the ones I have known for the past three years who were in Goddess' preschool class.

They are so sweet and funny and as much as I didn't want to take on one more thing, being with my 10 girls is a fun part of my week.

We are trying to condense two years into one as these girls are on a mission to be Brownies next year. The leader last year fizzled out and didn't really do anything to keep the group progressing. We are confident that our girls will move forward with all the accomplishments they need.

Two days of trips was hard to fit into this already busy month but so worth it. Our Police and Fire Department are an amazing group. We see them often as they come to the school for many things and host the town on Fire Prevention. They also star in a lot of our parades and such so we know a lot of them by name which makes it all the more personal as we headed in with our group.

Goddess and the other girls were excited and asked A LOT of questions. Thankfully these guys are patient because I would have lost it half way through if I were the one speaking to the group.

The girls loved being fingerprinted. I took a photo of all the girls getting their fingers done. Goddess was last and at this point my girls were moving into the next room so I never got a shot of her facing the camera. 

Their favorite part was being put in the prison cell. The moms and I were creeped out by the cell but the girls loved being in there. Can you see how happy they all are? A little too happy if you ask me.

Here is my Goddess in a bullet proof vest. They are lighter than you would think.

We are going to make copies of the pictures for our Police Department and have the girls sign a card for the guys time. They really are great guys.

Goddess looks bored in the middle but trust me she was probably as worried as I was about someone else holding my Canon 50D! God help them.

The next day we headed to the fire house to meet another group of guys.  Our girls again were relentless with their questions. The guys went over the parts of each truck and all the components on them. It was quite detailed and way too much information but the girls were not bored one bit as the guys just kept answering.

They girls each got to sit in the driver seat for a photo op. Here is my boo-boo...

After that we took a shot of them in the back of the truck. My hope is to present each girl with her own photo album at the end of the year as a way to remember her year as a Daisy. Hopefully it doesn't cost me too much. It's like a where's Waldo shot. Can you find Goddess?

Next the guys did what they do every time they go to the school. They put on a uniform as the kids watch. Statistics show that many children are afraid of the firefighters coming through the smoky house with the strange breathing sound and hide. Only to parish in a fire hiding from the person who could have saved them. The girls had a lot of questions about the suit.

After he was suited up, the firefighters explained about the special alarm that tells other firefighters where one of their own is if God forbid they get injured or collapses in a fire. If the firefighter doesn't move an alarm will go off. To show how this works, Firefighter John threw himself on the ground and didn't move. The alarm does get very loud, we all held our ears.

After that, we asked him to pose with our girls. Mine was rather interested in the firefighter next to her, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

When it was over, a firefighter opened the door (one of the dads of a Daisy) and let the girls pose by the truck. Can you tell they were freezing? It wa-assss brrrr cold!

All in all, our girls and our parents had a great time! Loved every minute.

It's The Little Things...

Having kids is one of the best parts of my life. That, my husband, good friends, a balanced outlook and the air I breathe.

This year while Teach and Goddess were putting up the holiday decorations outside they found a huge hole from mice in our blow up decorations. Ugh...just what we need, another cost for the season. I my head, I thought...OK..well this year, no blow ups. We don't need the additional expense.

Nope, Teach is a good dad and when he promises, he usually comes through....

He headed out and picked up an animated snow globe, the kind with snow that moves around inside.

He started putting it up as I headed to the bus stop to pick up the kids. We walked back and they noticed our neighbors set up...ooohhhhing and ahhhing. I couldn't wait for them to notice ours so I said, "I see something else that is pretty cool or something like that."

They came running up to the house, shouting, "that is so cool!" Loved it.


After dark we headed outside as a family to see how it looked. Kids are easy, we don't have a lot of lights and stuff, but they LOVE it and that is all we care about.

I love this picture of Goddess with the elf hat and her missing bottom teeth...oh yeah...my baby lost two teeth but I have been too busy to write about it. Makes me crazy.

Here she is pointing at the house telling Handsome to look at it...because he was busy running around. Crazy that in December we were outside without coats. In fact, Handsome has his PJs on because that is how he rolls. He comes home and changes right away where Goddess is in her clothes until the very end.

Believe

Christmas Decorations are one of my favorite things to take photos of next to my children.