I took this picture at my Women’s Retreat that was in Monterey back in January. All I think when I see this is the song All is Well. And with my last couple of weeks I need to keep that refreshment!
Category Archives: life
Lock Up Your Daughters
So tonight after dinner the Nerdster (my 5 year old son) looks at me and asks if I know what the most precious gem is. I give him the typical mom answer of “What do you think it is?” Then he looks at me with his big eyes and says, “It is a single tear.” Â He was totally deadpan with big, serious eyes. I melted.
Apparently he got it from a dragon book. It isn’t the source of the line but how you use it;). All I can think is lock up your daughters cause the Nerdster is loose;).
Music, Coupons and Apps
In this week’s Monday Mingle I talk about my favorite songs and apps along with how I use coupons! What are your favorite songs right now? Do you use coupons when you shop? What are you favorite apps?
See more Monday Mingles over at Eighty MPH Mom!
I Have Slayed the Linen Closet!!
I know that doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment does it? But look at how horribly messy it is!! It was in just a fright that it took me hours spread over a few weeks. Hey, with 4 kids when do I have a few hours to dedicate to clean out 1 closet;)?
I had to sort through all the back stock of bath and beauty products. A lot hit the garbage. You know girls, the lipstick you wore twice decided you didn’t like it but thought you might like it some day? And what stayed just got organized! 1 bin for hair products, 1 bath product, so on and so forth.
Then I went through all the linen! Having had 4 babies, currently have 3 twin beds, a spare queen aero mattress and a king bed well that makes for a lot of linen. Since we are done with babies I got rid of all the baby blankets that are too small for the toddler bed, some of the many crib sheets (had something like 10) and a similar number of crib mattress pads.
I brought in some big plastic bing. One is for twin sheet sets, one is for extra twin mattress pads and blankets. Then I brought in a very big one that is in the very top of the closet. In that I put the extra king size mattress pad (that thing is huge!), blanket and flannel sheets.
Not only am I now much more organized, I can actually see what we do and don’t need! I found we need more blankets and more hand towels but we definitely don’t need more twin sheets!
Ahh, now my head is a bit clearer. So have you gotten any projects done this week?
Simple Kindness
Isn’t that a pretty flower? The story is a little prettier. I was shopping with my NerdPie one Saturday and I parked next to a flower delivery van. So we got out of our car right after the a young man got into the flower delivery van. We were about 20 feet away (I stopped to take pictures for a Whrrl) and the young man who was in the van came running up to us. At first I was thrown off, I mean a young man running after you is a bit shocking. It looked like he was holding something. I looked to see if I dropped something but I seemed to have everything. He was holding out this flower for my little flower. He just said that he thought she might like it and hoped we would have a nice day.
It just touched my heart!
The Struggles of My Bloggy Life
Ok, I love my life. I love to blog. I love my kids. I love to homeschool. I love my husband. I would love to have a clean, de-cluttered house (I think, I have never had one;). I love to hang out with my friends. I love church. I love to serve at church. I love video games and comic books. I love politics. I love to read. I love to cook. I love to craft.
So with all this love I am sure you are wondering what my problem is. Well, apparently there is only 24 hours in the day and I can’t make any more hours appear;). I want to blog for a living but I have a bunch of responsibilities. And then I have a bunch of things that I just desire to do. Even in my most ideal world, I can’t do everything I want to do. So that means that choices have to be made. I don’t get to play the video games I want to play or do craft projects that would be fun. That is just real life. But sometimes it feels like Sophie’s Choice. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a little bit.
I am a yes girl by nature. Which means if there is something to do I will do it if it is physically possible, especially if it is a 1 time thing. So up until this semester it seems the thing I have always neglected is the house and doing projects with the kids.
But something had to change. My God, my family, my house and my blogs are my real priorities and they were all being short changed! So this semester I chose to give up my Thursday Bible Study. Before you all think that I am abandoning God, I have another Bible study that I am in. By giving up Thursday it meant that there was a day that we don’t have to go out at all! And do you know how valuable it is for homeschooling and blogging to actually be home? And I thought that would fix all my time and priority problems.
Then life got in the way. I started getting headaches. I have been having really bad headaches for about a month now. So I haven’t been writing the way I want. I have been doing projects with great companies but I haven’t been posting like I want because of the headaches. Then I got the flu and I got it in a way I have never had it before. I was dehydrated and shaky and miserable. To the point that I couldn’t even read my emails much less form sentences to return them. Then I barely got healthy enough to stand and I was off to Women’s Retreat.
I came home with a new outlook. I am in a season of NO. Do I want to go to a homeschool seminar this weekend? No. Do I want to host something at my house? No. Do I want to go to coffee (just for fun, not because you need to talk)? No.
Now this doesn’t mean that I am quitting things I already do but I am not taking anything else on without it being super special. Maybe this will bring some sort of clarity and peace to my crazy, mixed up bloggy life. And maybe I will go to the doctor for my headaches.
How do those of you who balance it all, how do you do it? Can I actually clean my house, teach my kids, play with them and be a successful blogger? Help a girl out!
Parody Joy
Ok, we can’t deny that Lady Gaga is super catchy and the kids would love it. But I don’t love the lyrics. So when I was looking at Hanukkah videos I saw numerous Jewish Lady Gaga parodies and we here at the NerdFamily have been watching a ton of them. And we love them!!! Who knew Hebrew and Yiddish would lend itself so well;).
These parodies have led to both interesting and hilarious results. Interesting because it has given me plenty of things to explain to the kiddos. Not only what is referenced in the videos on that face of it but why we keep and agree with some of those things and not others. The hilarity comes when you see your 7 and 3 year old girls singing about not seeing someone because they are engaged;). I rolled!
New Years Geek Resolutions
@Cebsilver asked this morning over on Twitter if anyone had any geeky New Years Resolutions. Well, as a matter of fact I do;). This is the year I finally bask in my geek! I have a huge list of geek things I want to do both for geek fun and to be productive.
So starting with the productive geek (but not the blog stuff;). I want to take some old (very old) computers and piece together a NAS system (Network Attached Storage). NerdDad desires something in the 5 hard drive range but we will see the capacity for the machines. I want to take a desktop that we are currently running our tv off of and make it a true media system. I need to put ram, tuners, a dvr, speakers, etc. I also want to build out a new desktop system for myself and NerdDad. Possibly with a dual screen setup.
On the fun geek side! I want to try and make it to the GirlGeekCon up in Seattle this year. I want to make a point of gaming weekly!!! It doesn’t have to be anything serious, just regularly scheduled! I am going to fit in time for both the wii and Steam games. I am also going to keep up on my tech news through reading and podcasts. I am just going to have to make an appointment with myself.
I also have a list of movies to watch. Things like Goonies, Blade Runner and more!
So there are my geek resolutions. I will have more normal resolutions but that is a separate post;).
A Tea Table Set
Ok, this may seem like a weird Tackle it Tuesday post but we all have our challenges. This was my first year hosting a table for my church’s annual bou”tea”que and was a bit nervous. The hostess is responsible to bring in dishes, decorate the tables and do favors for the people who sit at our table. I was kind of intimidated because so many women come in and set not only beautiful tables but super fancy ones! But I have to say, I think my table turned out pretty cute!
I was really proud of my favors. I found these cute little plastic jars at the Dollar Tree. They look like little sugar bowls but air tight. Then I just filled them with various tea bags, dropped them into cellophane bags and closed them with silver twist ties!
So while it seems like a silly tackle it still took planning, execution and there was a lot of anxiety getting it done;).
Fair Bubbles
Here is another fun picture from our big fair trip! They had these huge bubble set ups! So fun!