Gratitude During Moving Chaos

ARG so much going on right now, with us moving to the Kapolei area of Oahu. This is an exciting time, and one we've been looking forward to for awhile...ok a looooooong while....but it's also pretty stressful in some ways.

Packing and moving a household of 5 people would be a challenge no matter what, but with 3 of those people age 4 and under, it's interesting. Samuel keeps asking for certain books/toys and when he's reminded that those are packed in boxes, he responds with a very 15-year-old sounding; "Aww, MAN!" It's really funny. He needs to be prepared well in advance when something 'different' is happening, so he's been told what is going on and can recite it to anyone who asks; "We are putting everything in boxes. The boxes go in a big truck. We drive the big truck to NEW HOUSE and take the boxes out. We cut into the boxes and get out all our toys again."

Sounds simple, right? haha yeah, to him.

The Ko'Olina Lagoons will be our closest beach area;

which is great because we love to take our kids there already!

Olivia doesn't understand the move, and probably won't even remember living here in this place since she was born here and is only about to turn 3. She's just going with the flow, which means her usual asking for a Princess movie, needing more juice or chocolate milk or snacks or to go to the potty or wanting her blanket or her pillow or crying about Samuel doing something or crying because she saw a bug, or crying for no reason at all.....you get the picture. She is high-maintenance to say the least.

Olivia playing "Packing and Moving"; where she packs a box full of toys, writes on it with a pen, closes it and moves it to another room where she proceeds to open and unpack it. Since this is the first move of her entire life, my sister and I decided this proves that moving is in her DNA. Yep, I passed on some gypsy blood I guess!

And Emma needs everything a 7-month old baby needs, which is food, diapers, sleep, and constant supervision because everything goes into her mouth and she is trying to learn to walk already.

Ems trying to stand climb on the boxes in her determination

to actually walk before we leave this house!

It's fun here!

But I've been thinking about blessings and how I want to be sure and remind myself about the ones I have in my life. I want to remember to thank God for them because I surely don't deserve them. For everything bleh in my life, I want to stop and turn the bleh moment into hurray!

The house we are moving to won't be THAT much bigger. But it WILL have another bedroom AND a front yard AND a backyard, both fenced in, which is a crazy blessing here in Hawaii.

It's a pain to pack everything. But God has prepared me for this; this is my 15th move in life so really, I'm a pro and it requires very little mental energy to efficiently pack. Heavens knows I need my mental energy for other things.

It's hot here and icky to work in. But we are moving to a higher elevation which should be cooler and rainer...yay! My kids may even actually wear clothes during the day if it's cool enough!

My kids, husband, and myself have good health. My husband is awesome and I'm so proud of him for getting this new job and making this big move for his family, because it's just one more step up for us on our road in life.

My kids are amazing. Samuel will be starting Kindergarten in a new school and has no fear whatsoever; he's so excited about it and I know he'll do well in the new program. He's reading 3-letter words and hearing him sound out words makes my heart jump with pride. Olivia is trying to potty train and is SUCH a good little mommy to Emma. Emma...oh my word....that child is gorgeous and sweet and I spend so many moments of the day just kissing her! I can't help it! She may be my last baby and that alone is reason to slow down and enjoy her adorableness!

OK, back to work. I just really wanted to share an attitude of gratitude!

Rainbow Cake

I feel bad because I posted pics of my rainbow cake on FB last night, but I was too tired to explain it...and to say that the idea is NOT my own! I don't want to take credit for something that wasn't my original idea, so let me tell you where I got the idea from....a blog I found through Pinterest!

By the way, have you gotten on Pinterest yet? OH MY WORD so much simple fun...haha....I love it. I love the idea of making a 'bulletin board' of your dreams/wishes/goals and Pinterest makes it easy. You can browse hundreds of pictures and 'pin' the ones you like onto your own boards. Or just 'pin' a picture up when you come across one you like online. So much fun. Love it. Join now (free). Click here.

ANYWAY I digress. So yeah, this is the pic I found on Pinterest, and the cool thing about Pinterest is that you can usually click on the picture and find who originally posted it, and therefore how to make that wonderful bookcase/clothing item/culinary delight.

Doesn't that look AWESOME??? But don't wait any longer, click over to the ORIGINAL blog to see how to do this. And guess what....this is Weight-Watcher's approved!! Yep! Here you go, click here.

Ok, so I didn't follow her recipe though, for two main reasons:

1. I wasn't worried about doing it Weight-Watcher-approved

2. I'm not that good of a cook. I don't do complicated recipes. Period.

So mine was simple; I got the white cake mix and followed all the directions to make the batter. Since it calls for only egg whites I was super impressed that I knew how to quickly & manually separate the egg whites, thanks to my years of working at IHOP in college and watching the cooks do this. A nod to those slavery years, thank you IHOP.

Then I separated the batter into roughly equal portions. I decided to only do 4 colors because it was late and I was tired, but my imagination could see all sorts of colors and combinations possible. The purple came from mixing blue/red dye.

Then I plopped the batter (dividing it into two of course) into the WELL GREASED cake pans. This was fun. Actually this whole cake was fun but probably because I love colors and these are awesome bright colors, yes?

Bake these beauties like the box says to do. And here you go. I didn't do the stacked cake like the original blog does because I was making one small one for my family to enjoy, and the other is for a friend. But yes, the stacked one would be fun. I also want to do cupcakes this way but thanks to my husband, I didn't have access to my cupcake pans. That's another story I won't delve into here.

And I didn't go fancy with colored icing because, as stated above, it was late and I was tired. Next time, I want to do fun icing though. I'm visualizing a red/white/blue cake with some sort of matching icing...for the Fourth of July? Or whatever...let your imagination run wild...

YUM YUM!!! My husband & the kids were in love with this cake and couldn't wait to eat it.

OK so if you go into Pinterest, enter "rainbow cake" into the search box and be inspired by all the pics that come up. The next time you make a cake for your kids, make it FUN!

Seriously, if I can do this, anyone can do it.

I'll Take Some Inner Peace, Master Shifu!

When I was a kid, I looked forward to summer so much! Nights of staying up late playing outside until the fireflies came out, then getting to read in my bed until I nodded off to sleep...lazy days of sleeping in, having breakfast for lunch before a day of climbing trees, reading, playing with the cats and dogs, and finding exciting new places to explore. Summer seemed too short!

HAHAHAHAHA fast forward a few years and now I'm a mom. And now summer is tooooo long!

Don't get me wrong, I ADORE my son. I love Samuel to pieces and would do anything for him. I enjoy pulling him close for hugs and kisses even when he smells like a sweaty boy. However, as discussed in my previous posts, he has high-functioning autism and this means summers are TOO LONG for all of us!

"Look Mommy, I'm Master Shifu!"

Autistic kids thrive (and survive) on routines. Samuel in particular, loves having his days mapped out for the next few weeks, including every activity he may be involved in. He can tell you what he's supposed to do in the days leading up to a fun activity and it would sound something like this; "Wake up, eat pudding, go to school. Come home, take a nap, wake up, watch a movie, play, read books, go to park, take a bath, brush teeth, read a Bible story, say prayers, go to sleep. Then wake up, eat pudding, go to birthday party! Yay!" And this is how our days go, every day. If something is coming up that is unusual, we prepare him for it days or weeks in advance. His teachers create visual calendars showing all the school days, holidays, etc. that they send home with him, knowing he wants to cross off days and look at everything planned out for him in advance.

SO now it's summer. The schedule is 'messed up', regardless of any summer schedule I try to implement. He also thrives on learning so I try to do homeschooling, but he gets through all of that so quickly it's crazy...then he's bored. And a bored boy equals trouble! Add a 2-yr old girl and a baby learning to crawl, and it's no wonder my home looks like an earthquake turned it upside down! And sleep....HAHA what is that??

Anyway, my son is watching Kung Fu Panda 2 and playing with all of his beloved KFP2 action figures from McDonalds. I have to laugh at the movie because of its theme about achieving inner peace. The theory is; if you can achieve inner peace, you can harness the power of the universe. Forget the universe, I'll let God take care of that. I just want to harness the power of having a peaceful home, a peaceful mommy with lots of patience, and oh yes, the inner peace of having a long, interrupted nap.

If Mommy's truly mastered inner peace, can you even IMAGINE what we would be able to get done??? If we weren't so sleep deprived, we'd be unstoppable.