Exciting Announcement (No I'm Not Pregnant)

I wish I had more time to blog. For that matter, I wish I had time to shower alone more than once a week, on Saturdays when my husband is available to watch the minions. But back to the blogging...yes. It's therapeutic. I like writing. I like blogging. It's nice to get things out of my head and into the universe. I really need to do this more! Although, in the last few years I've had a ton of things in my head that should NOT be put into the universe, probably. But that's another story for another day when I can ignore the minions long enough to grab this laptop and sit down with my thoughts.

I'm going to make more of an effort, because it's good for me and my soul, and also because there just MAY be someone out there reading it, you never know! I found this out when I got a ping on my phone this week when someone tweeted me, which of course piqued my interest because I also rarely tweet. Basically a blogger (someone who actually blogs, and therefore deserves to be called a blogger, versus my sad unblogging self), came across one of my old posts and has found it in her heart to publish it in a book that she's writing about craft fails. Am I offended? NOT AT ALL. I think it's HILARIOUS!

I love Pinterest and I always try and actually do many of the things that I pin. The meals come out surprisingly well, as evidenced by my husband who frequently complains about his weight, and sometimes some of the other things do as well. But many times my best efforts are absolute FAILS and it just makes me laugh. I am totally NOT Martha Stewart but I sure have fun attempting awesome things.

Anyway, back to Heather. Wow I am totally scattered today and this post will show it! Of course I keep get interrupted by kids complaining about siblings hitting them or eating their Battleship pieces (that's going to be one Destroyer of a diaper later tonight), and so on. See why I rarely blog?

So Heather seems nice. I think we could be friends in real life. I will confess that after she contacted me, I cyber-stalked her to make sure she wasn't a weird cyber stalker who just wanted access to my kids pictures or some other lame thing that cyber stalkers want. She seems cool and maybe we'll meet one day. She has an awesome blog called DollarStoreCrafts as well as CraftFail. Her book is coming out in 2014 and I am HONORED that this blog post (my epic Hula Hoop Rug Fail) will be included in her book, amongst the other equally awesome crafty people such as myself.

When it comes out I'll let ya'll know so you can buy it!

Cheers....

That Man I Married

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day.

As someone wise once said, when your spouse shows you every day how much they love you, Valentine's Day is just another day.

Yep!

My husband has been on my mind a lot in the last few days,

and I've been thinking about how lucky/blessed I am that he is mine.

Honestly I don't know how it happened

other than to just say it was the masterful orchestration of God that brought us together in life.

Elton is amazing and it is my prayer that my daughters find men like their daddy to marry.

There are so many ways that I know he loves me...here are a few. Hopefully one day my daughters will see this list and know what kind of unselfish guy they need to look for!

He kills the bugs.

He takes out the trash.

I've only had to put gas in the vehicle a few times in our almost 8-years of marriage;

mostly he does it.

If going through the drive-through for food, he doesn't even need to call and ask what I want. No matter what place it is, he knows exactly what I'd like.

He knows our life is crazy...three kids age 5 and under is a circus. But it's our circus and we work as team mates to run it. Having a true partner by your side makes all the difference...

Many times I wake up to a clean kitchen and quietly humming dishwasher that he filled/started before leaving for work.

He likes to cook and is good at it, and he's so thoughtful even while preparing meals.

For example; when he makes his awesome pizzas he knows I don't like chorizo

so he only puts it on his side of the pizza.

He knows I'm very number-dyslexic and terrified of numbers and money issues.

So he handles all the money matters.

Yes I know that's so 50's housewife-ish of me

but not having the anxiety of dealing with money (other than couponing) is a huge relief to me.

If I wake up at night with a nightmare he wakes up with me

and comforts me with prayer and kisses.

He wrestles with the kids and plays ball with them, even in the house. He's a goofy, cool dad even though no one ever showed him how to be one.

I can't even express how awesome it is to wake up early sometimes and come downstairs to find him kneeling in prayer before getting Samuel up for school.

He loves the 'morning duty' of getting Samuel up and ready for school, and walking him to the bus stop. He really wants to be his son's buddy. His hero. And he will be...

If I'm stressed, he listens. Always.

He knows exactly how I like my coffee and will prepare it for me, even though he's not a huge coffee drinker himself.

We can talk about anything. Anytime.

Even if it means staying up until the wee hours vocalizing our life dreams and goals.

We share a hunger for more of God in our lives and in our kids lives. I cannot imagine not sharing that with my husband. It's wonderful to share insight into Scriptures.

Speaking of that, it's cool watching him stay up late at night just studying the Word.

I know I'll hear about his latest inspiration in the morning.

He changes diapers.

He vacuums.

He has filled my life with music through the years.

During three childbirths he's been at my side; so gentle, calm, and wonderful.

Through two miscarriages, he's been at my side through the tears.

That moment in church when your handsome husband puts his arm around the back of your chair and gently squeezes you for a minute, and you forget to listen to the preacher for a few seconds because you just fell a little deeper in love...yeah I'm there a lot.

He still makes my heart beat faster and my tummy feel with butterflies when he smiles at me.

I love him and I know that he loves me.

Advent Activities!

I wasn't raised doing an Advent calendar, but most likely it was just because my parents had never heard of it. This was obvious when I tried to talk to my mom about it yesterday:

"Mom, have you ever heard of an advent calendar?"

"A what?"

"An advent calendar."

"An ad-what?"

"An ADVENT CAL EN DAR."

"Ad-what?"

"Never mind."

When I explained it to her, she thought it was a good idea. Of course I really don't know if I truly understand it, having only heard of it this year thanks to Pinterest. I kept seeing all these pics of advent calendars and so I did what any curious person knows what to do...I looked it up on our most reliable source; Wikipedia. And being a very busy mom I skimmed the article...sorry, but I usually only get to sit down and browse the web as I'm breastfeeding so skimming is just good time management.

Anyway, from my limited research, it seems that Advent is something about celebrating or anticipating the upcoming birth of Jesus...and basically you plan an activity for every day from Dec. 1 up until Christmas.

Wow, sounds good to me.

In my day, we just made red and green paper chains and tore off a link every night. This idea is better!

Of course, I'd like to make a cutsy, fun, creative, beautiful, Pinterest-worthy advent calendar.

Maybe next year. Seriously, I just decided to do advent activities and so it was added to my pages-long to-do Holiday list. So, this year I'm doing it with construction paper, crayons, and post-it notes. Don't judge...at least I'm DOING it, and that's the point.

What I love about this idea:

It focuses more on the real reason for the season, Jesus Christ. It also focuses on doing things for other AND doing things as a family.

It will help my husband and I to pause more during all the chaos...to breath a little, and to take time with the kids.

Since Samuel will be out of school for half the month, this will help him to see that there are still things to do.

This helps the kids anticipate every day, and whatever that activity will be.

Sounds win-win to me!

The post-it notes are because we may decide to switch some activities around, depending on how our schedules are going.

So here are my activities:

1. Put up our Christmas tree

2. Make the Christmas countdown paper chain (hey this is one of my fav childhood memories and it brings warm fuzzies)

3. Get family pics made

4. Read a Christmas book as a family and act it out

5. Go see Kapolei Christmas lights

6. Prepare a gift for a child from the Angel tree project

7. Color Christmas pages (printed from Pinterest probably) as a family. Display them.

8. Open a gift early! (will probably be new jammies for the kids)

9. Go see the Christmas drama at First Assembly of God in Red Hill

10. Eat out as a family and wear red/green. Maybe wear wigs.

11. Donate food to the Hawaii Foodbank

12. Prepare gifts for Samuel's classmates

13. Have friends over for dinner. Play a board game with all the kids.

14. Make Nativity scene with Mommy's craft supplies

15. Find a baby sitter and have a Daddy/Mommy only date night

16. Let the kids ride the Polar Express train at Pearlridge mall

17. Go to the beach

18. Watch "It's A Wonderful Life"

19. Make Gingerbread men/women

20. Do Christmas puzzles together

21. Take cookies to soldiers and say "thank you" for serving us.

22. Go ride the boat for the Pearl Harbor Christmas lights tour.

23. Take cookies to local fire station and say "thank you" for serving us

24. Buy a gift for our special friend and hide it at her house for her to find later

25. Read the Nativity story before opening gifts.

So there you go!

As my husband said last night; "This sounds like a lot of work."

Me, thinking 'Scrooge'; "Well you don't have to do everything, some of it is just for the kids. And it's to help us have fun and focus on Jesus. Maybe this will be a fun new family tradition."

Him; "Well if it's too much work then we don't have to do it again."

Me; "Yeah, true. But maybe it will be awesome and will become a new family tradition."

See, the wife should have the last word because we all know she's always right.

Have fun this HOLY DAY season and remember the Reason for the Season!

Hula Hoop Rug - FAIL

Have you heard about the Hula Hoop Rug craft idea? If not, check it out here or you won't be able to fully appreciate how beautiful my effort turns out.

Here is the picture that fired my imagination...

So, I saw this and thought it was just oh, so cute! The bright colors are appealing. The easy-ness of the project was appealing. And the hula hoop idea was cool. I didn't know where I would actually put a hula hoop rug but hey, why not do it first and then find a place?

I got the hula hoop at Wal-Mart for $5. Geez, that seems expensive for a toy that's been around since my mom was a teenager! I picked the largest one they had and turned around to see two customers in those motorized wheelchairs, waiting to get by me in the aisle. I said "excuse me, I'm sorry", and stepped aside but they didn't move. They sat there in their chairs, chuckling, and said that they were actually waiting to see me try the hula hoop out and see if it actually worked. What the....? Really? I'm a mid-30's mother of three, with post-pregnancy pounds happily clinging to my body. I don't hula hoop. But my sister standing beside them smiled innocently, and with a twinkle in her eye added her voice to theirs; "yes SoShawna, why don't you see if it works?" What could I do? Turn down two handicapped older people who were waiting for a show? Sigh. So of course I had to hope the security camera people were watching another department of the store and I stepped into the hula. And wouldn't you know it, I'm not a hula hooper person. At all. But twirling ones hips with abandonment in the middle of store is actually a pretty liberating sensation. With the customers cheering, we moved along.

I went to a rummage sale the next weekend and asked for a bag of t-shirts for a craft project. They had me come back at the end of the sale and said I could take any that I liked for free since they were donating everything to Goodwill anyway. Score! I picked all the brightest colors and some neutral ones as well and filled a garbage bag full. Then it was time to reclaim my hula hoop from the kids, who were fighting over it anyway. It's interesting to take a toy away from your little kids, telling them; "No! This is Mommy's toy!".

Emma patiently sitting by Mommy's Hoop so you can see how big it is.

My t-shirts from the rummage sale.

Successfully recruiting my sister into my nifty craft project, I put her to work sorting the colors. I thought it would be appropriate to do autumn colors, seeing as how it's almost Fall. As if we have seasons in Hawaii, which we don't, but since it's September I can pretend that we have seasons.

I told her to get all the colors that we might see in leaves fallen from the trees in the fall.

Then I started with the t-shirt for the 'warp'. And no, I'm not such a good weaver person that I knew what 'warp' was! According to the instructions on this website, the warp are the loops that will provide the skeleton of the rug. Anyway, I picked the largest (3XL) t-shirt because I thought that since my hula hoop was so big, I needed the biggest warp loops.

I cut the bottom hem off and gave it to my son to play with. He pretended it was a snake.

Then started cutting the strips off, about every inch or so, across the bottom of the t-shirt. This makes your loops.

You need 11 loops so here are mine. Luckily I have a Kindergartner who likes to practice his counting and he made sure I actually had 11.

Uh oh. First 'fail'. The 3XL shirt loops were WAY too big for the hula hoop! They were not tight at all around the hoop, as my Kindergartener demonstrates here...

Oh well. I cut up the rest of the brown 3XL shirt anyway, because it was part of my entire color palette for the rug. Here are all of the shirts, nicely cut into loops. Brown, orange, red, green, & yellow. Lovely, yes?

So, back to the warp. Next choice was the bright orange from a shirt that was only XL. Perfect. 

Back to the 11 loops...

 All 11 loops carefully strung onto the hoop as my entire 'warp'. I don't know if that's the right usage of the word 'warp' but it makes sense to me. The loops were evenly spaced and then 2 loops are slid together to make the weaving even. I also don't know why this is important but apparently it is. Read the original site if you want an explanation. Remember that the title of this blog post has the word 'Fail' in it....

After the warp was in place, I started weaving the 'weft'. Arrrgggg another weird weaving word that I've never heard in my entire life! Basically the weft are the loops that are woven around the skeleton of the rug. You loop the first loop by...you know...attaching it to one of the skeleton spokes and running it through itself, like when you attach a rubber band to something. I can't explain it any further than that, either you get it or you don't. 

I started weaving the red loops around the spokes but then I hated the way it looked in the middle, with the orange blob where all the spokes cross each other. 

So yeah, my sister and I pulled all the red loops out...

 

...and decided to start with the orange loops, so the entire center would be orange and blended better. If you haven't figured it out yet, you go around all of the spokes in an over/under/repeat pattern, treating all the loops as a single unit at first.

Second 'fail': we pushed and pulled everything together TIGHTLY. The original instructions say to weave firmly but not tightly...something along those lines. Obviously my sister and I tend to do things the way it makes sense to us, and later we realize that perhaps we were wrong...

But...still blissfully unaware that I was doing things too tightly, I went around the center 4 times with each color, attached additional loops of color as needed. This was actually pretty fun and relaxing...to do something pretty mindless as this as everyone chatted all around. 

Oh yes, when the circle is about 8 inches across, you start weaving in and out of each spoke as two individual strands instead of the single unit like you were in the beginning. 

When I reached the end of my 5 colors, I had to stop and use crayons to sort of visualize how I wanted the pattern to continue....repeat the pattern (orange/green/yellow/red/brown), or reverse it so it would begin & end with the orange. I decided on the latter. 

Luckily I also have a 9-month old who is an expert weaver. She is probably a lot better than me and could have done a much better job. I should have let her do the whole thing.

Finally done, about 5-6 inches from the edge of the hula hoop, I cut the last loop and tied it into place.

Then cut all the spokes from the hoop and...

...tie into tight knots.

And THEN the laughing can begin. What the...

Is it a weird sombrero?

All that tight weaving made it bumpy and lumpy and....small.

Or it could be a hat with nice dangling strings...all the better to keep the flies away from your face! Cool!

I could add some handles, maybe, and have a clutch?

Finally, my best idea...take my large wooden bread bowl...

...and line it! (Ended up cutting off the tassels later). 

The next night I had a dinner party, and served my cornbread rolls in this bright bowl. It got compliments and caused my sister and I to exchange happy chuckles. 

So, if you try to do this craft, be sure and follow the instructions better than I did. But hopefully you'll have just as much fun doing it...from start to finish...as I did! Just shake your hips with joy when you make sure your hula hoop works, pick colors that make you smile, follow instructions, let your kids help, and laugh at the result. No matter how it turns out, if you laugh then it's a success.

Hmmm...I think my next project will be something more like this....how could I possibly mess it up?

Boo-Hoo Blog

So this is the biggest event of my day:

I know, I know, every parent says it; "I can't believe my baby is going to Kindergarten!" I thought I was prepared for these emotions. After all, this is not my first "First Day of School" to go through! Let me back up a bit...

Samuel starting preschool two weeks before turning 3.

Baby Olivia not sure what to think.

Samuel starting year two of preschool, two weeks before turning 4.

Olivia is pretty excited for him!

First day of Kindergarden, two weeks before turning 5.

Olivia is excited again but Baby Emma not sure what to think...

But today we took my firstborn baby to a new school. A very very big new school. With lots of kids and buildings and new newness. My son looks very big and tall thanks to genetics, and he fit in thanks to the mandatory school t-shirt, and he acted very confident. But I wish I knew what was really going on in his little brain...

Since he missed the 'real' first day last week due to the stomach flu, he's starting today without being aware of some of the basic rules he's supposed to follow. Like sitting down outside the classroom, waiting for the teacher to open the door, in nicely formed boys lines/girls lines. But another (loudmouth) parent instructed him to sit and so he did.

He knew where his seat was and after making a few cautious glances my way, he just sat quietly and waited for instructions. I kissed him and walked away. I left that little piece of my heart sitting there in that classroom.

I held it together until I got home. Then the thoughts started pouring through my head. Will he know where to go to the bathroom? Will he be able to tell the teacher that he needs to go or will he just go? With so many kids, she's pretty busy so if he can't get her attention in time, will he have an accident?

He doesn't know any of the kids! Will he make friends? Will he talk to them and have fun or will any of them realize he doesn't talk as well as they do, and make fun of him?

Will he be able to understand the directions the teacher says, and follow along? Will his autistic traits handicap him in any way, or will being put in this regular Kindergarden (instead of a Special Ed one) push him harder to excel rather than holding him back? Will he get frustrated or overlooked?

I noticed he didn't finish his cereal so what if he gets hungry before lunch?

Sigh...so many more things in my head.

And yet, I know to trust God with my son. After all, Samuel was His before he was mine. And last night we had a special family prayer over Samuel and said a blessing over him. We prayed for his clarity of mind and that he would learn well. We prayed for his protection physically, mentally, and emotionally. He is in God's hands.

Silly mommy. I need to just accept that I won't get much done today except prayer for Samuel!

The Nightmares We Aren't Living

Have you looked at your life lately?

We are ridiculously blessed.

You are probably reading this in a comfortable home, on a nice computer, iPad, or phone. You might be sipping a beverage (coffee from my Keurig maker, in my case), with your family happily settled in doing something fun or napping...whatever they are doing, they are safe. Most of us have good health, full tummies, and the luxury of doing whatever we want to do today.

And yet, isn't it interesting how much we find to complain about?

Let's see, I'll be raw and honest with you and start off with a list of stuff I could complain about:

I miss living close to my family.

Why does it seem like we never have enough money?

My son has autism and I didn't pick that adventure.

We are in the middle of moving and it's very chaotic.

It's really hot and humid right now.

I don't like my hair.

I want to lose more weight.

I have a hangnail that is infected and it even hurts to type right now.

The list could go on, but it's just dumb, at this point.

The reality is, we find something to complain about daily! Of course some of us have legit woes; death of a loved one, loss of good health, serious financial difficulties, etc. But MOST of us are just being spoiled brats.

Here's an ironic conversation I overheard yesterday while at my son's school; two women with their kids swarming around them were talking about their husbands. The first one blah-blah-blahed endlessly about how mad she was at her husband's ex-wife and how "half of his paycheck goes to her for child support!" "How nice it would be to be able to do more fun things if they only had more of the money that he was shelling out every month to his ex for the kids!" Finally the conversation shifted to the other woman, who then proceeded to launch into a complaining campaign about how her ex husband was not paying his child support money to her. I wanted to butt in and ask the first woman if she preferred to have a slacker husband who wasn't doing his financial duty for his kids? They seemed to miss the irony of the two of them vehemently complaining about (and agreeing with each other) the opposite sides of the same issue.

I have a feeling they'll just keep complaining about this for years.

Anyway, have you read or seen anything about Jacee Dugard lately? She recently gave an interview with Diane Sawyer and I saw a clip of it online. That girl lost her innocence tragically at age 11, and spent 18 YEARS brutally restrained, repeatedly raped, and controlled while living in impoverished conditions. She bore 2 children for her abuser and in this clip was talking about giving birth to the first one at age 14; while in labor she was alone, scared out of her mind, and yet she did it.

That just struck me! I've given birth three times in a safe hospital setting, surrounded by medical professionals and loving, supportive family. I never want to complain about any of the pain I endured, again. Not after knowing what that 14 year old girl went through.

Many times the questions we ask ourselves is;

"Why is this happening to me?

Why aren't I having the wonderful pain-free, problem-free life I want?

How come everything hasn't turned out like I wanted it to?

Why isn't my husband perfect?

Why are my kids so wild?

Why don't I have more money?

Don't I deserve a good life?"

What we need to be asking ourselves is;

"How is it that my life is NOT as bad as others?

Why aren't I the one dealing with a missing or murdered child?

How come I wasn't born in a country where I was raped around age 5

and then sold by my own parents into sex slavery

in order to give my family a few extra bags of rice?

Why isn't my family in a nation of civil unrest that tears us apart and forces us all into torture and abuse, including rape and being infected by HIV?"

Because the blunt reality is that NONE of us deserve the blessings that we have and the wonderful life that we are given.

It's by the grace of God that we are born to decent families in a prosperous nation.

It's by the grace of God that we have our basic health.

It's by His mercy that we aren't forced into

abuse, slavery, and a life of horrendous crime just for survival.

We gripe about our house when millions of people wish they had a safe place to sleep.

We critically judge our appearance in the mirror and devise ways to lose weight when millions of children literally starve to death every day.

We fuss with our hair, our nails, our clothes, and yet millions of kids wonder if they will live with their diseases long enough to become a teenager.

We moan about the mess and noise our kids are making when thousands of parents endure the nightmare of having their kids kidnapped and knowing that finding their dead bodies might be preferable to never knowing what happened to them.

Maybe your life isn't perfect. Maybe it hasn't turned out like the fairy tale you imagined that it would. But instead of focusing on what you don't have, let's try thanking God for what we don't have...those daily horrors that some people live and breath every moment.

Let's thank Him for what we DO have and remember that

..."but for the grace of God, there go I."

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!