100 days of HAPPINESS!!!

On Sunday, I was reading my patriarchal blessing. In it, it tells me "You have been blessed with a spirit of optimism and the ability to share it with others." Sometimes in life, we forget what talents we have been blessed with and need to work really hard to develop those talents. I kind of forgot that for a while and was a tad bit grumpy. I am determined to bring my happy place back! I seriously love all things GOOD and HAPPY! 

Yesterday my friend posted a link to this website and I thought, "This is a blessing in my life, I am so going to do this!" So today begins my 100 days where I am really focusing on being happy. Then, this happens.

This morning I am HAPPY to have a son with an amazing sense of humor. The other night I was laying in bed almost ready to go to sleep and his ipod starts ringing its tune indicating he has an imessage from my sister (rule is if they want an ipod, it stays in my room at night, even though they bought of themselves) I laughed and the next morning reminded him that yes, the ipod is supposed to be in my room but the sound is supposed to be off. "got it mom, sorry about that one" he says. Then later on in the night he asks me "Mom, what time do you wake up in the morning?" Me, "oh about 7:30." He walks away with a smile. This morning I find out why. At 7:29 his alarm on his ipod in my room goes off to the song on his ipod that I find to be the most annoying. I love him! I laughed so hard! #100daysofhappy

I am blessed beyond blessed to be a mom. L has worked really hard to find a happy place in his life. I am proud of him for finding joy! For choosing it really. It is something I have watched him learn to develop. I love him so much and I am grateful for him.

Goals for this year in cooking

I don't like to cook. Nope, not at all.I think a LOT of my dislike of cooking comes from my lack of confidence in my cooking skills.My "skills", term used e.x.t.r.e.m.e.l.y. loosely. When I first got married my Mr. used to say, "What are we having for burnt offerings, I mean dinner tonight?" That was a pretty true statement.

I WANT to learn how to cook. Now that I am home full time, I am taking this opportunity to learn how to cook more. I am going to post some recipes I like and am going to try to make this year.

Prime Rib. My family loves prime rib but I just don't know how to do it. I have a friend and her hubby is the prime rib king of their house. Here is the tutorial I want to use to make my prime rib. A lot of the other sides she has looks amazing, so I might make one or two of those as well. 

Tamales. I am going to use this recipe. She is my friend and happens to be an AMAZING cook! I know her recipes are good. I am so excited. I LOVE love LOVE tamales so I better learn to make these! 

Gumbo. I love the idea of Gumbo but have never had it. I love that it has so many veggies in it. I think this is the recipe I will try. Unless anyone has a better recipe. 

Jambalaya. I tried a recipe yesterday, it was so-so. I didn't put shrimp in it because I am the only in my family that likes shrimp. I meant to cook it on the side later but got home too late and forgot. This one looks way better than the one I tried. I wonder if I could make it with Quinoa. 

I want to learn to incorporate more veggies into my meals without it being veggies and dip or just steamed broccoli. I want my side dishes to be fun and exciting where they are full of veggies and healthy but not boring. Where my kids will learn to love veggies. Maybe I will too!

I want to learn more about gluten free baking. Not that I am going gluten free or have to, just want to learn how to do it. I have family members in my extended family and want to be able to bake something for them that they can enjoy when we get together. I want to be able to learn how to properly make my own gluten free dough mix. I want to understand more about what the differences are in flours. Not all flours "act" the same as the flour your buy in the store, so I have been told. I want to understand the difference between flours.

I want to learn more about soaking my foods for a better quality food before we eat them. Soaking nuts, grains, stuff like that. How to make soaked tortillas sounds interesting to me. The first time I saw it was here. They LOOK so good and healthy. 

I want to learn to make my own pasta! Seriously, doesn't this sound fun! To me it does. Quinoa pasta sounds AMAZING! I have never had it before but want to try it and learn to make it!

Most importantly, I want to learn to bake, decorate, cook and clean with my family in the kitchen! I want my kids to know how to make a proper meal. I want them to be more confident in the kitchen. L has been baking once a week. It is wonderful to be able to watch him grow and develop. He is becoming quite the foodie :) That makes me happy!

What are some recipes you didn't know how to make but taught yourselves? What are some of your favorite family meals?

What I have always wanted on a Saturday

This Saturday, today, this very day, was exactly what I have wanted, for years! It was perfect. It had it's few bumps but I have always wanted a Saturday like this.

The kids got up and did their flyer routes. 

L wanted 30 more minutes on his ipod so he needed to do a "mom chore" 

Pair that with his Saturday job and I got a fully cleaned out fridge and a huge dent in the kitchen cleaning done!

B had a basketball game. 

He rocked, he really did.

I love watching him play ball.

His room is clean.

M had a play date.

Her room is clean.

L went to a friend's house. 

His room is clean!

3 kids rooms that are CLEAN!

I wanted to clean out my cupboards and move things around, B's Saturday job was done.

I got time in with each of the kids, cuddling them and snuggling them.

The kids are HAPPY! 

They are fun! 

I seriously LOVE them!!!!

This really is a perfect Saturday.

Changing my wording

This article made me think. A LOT! 

I have thought about the past few years and my parenting style. Things have changed SO much! I am way less moody and grumpy now that I don't drink pop. I am trying to be more patient and kind and with my children, helping to guide them in their lives. I realize I really only get 18 years with them at home. If they live to be 100, I only get 18% of them at home with my influence. That really is not a lot of time. I know my influence is not always a good one, but I am trying to help it be a better example. 

After reading the article, I was talking with my son's sensei. He is a police officer. I was talking about how kids and people seem to be under so many rules. I often complain that people have no common sense anymore. Common sense really seems dead. When I was thinking about it, there is reasons why it is probably dead. This is MY philosophy and thinking only.

Common sense seems to be dead because people are not expected to think for themselves anymore.

There are so many rules that are negative out there.

Don't bully.

Don't drink and drive.

Don't hit your sister.

Don't be rude.

Don't, don't, don't.

The rules all seem to be worded as DON'T.

B's sensei has said to me time and time again, "People are often told what not to do but don't really listen because they only think of the last thing they hear." So for instance, a police officer saying to someone has pulled over, "Don't move!" Well, the person does not hear the "don't" they hear the "move" so the person swings around to listen to the police officer and gets in trouble for moving. I asked how he could re-word it. The answer was simple. He said to me, "If you want someone to do something, don't tell them what you don't want them to do, tell them what you DO want them to do." 

Makes sense to me.

So changing all the rules out there that we hear that are negative to these rules

Be kind 

Drive sober

Be kind to your sister.

Use good words to others.

It totally made me re-think the way I word things to my children. I am FAR from a perfect parent. Oh my goodness, the things I mess up on. It does make me want to re-word the way I say things to my kids. I have been taking the time to say things differently to the kiddos. You know what?
It made a HUGE difference in the way my kids do things! They are happier to do things when I ask them what TO do as opposed what NOT to do. I am just going to roll with this one.

6 years!

This post is a hard post to write. It is a HAPPY post. My emotions are high as I think about welcoming our first Little Lady to our home. 

I always wanted to be a mom. When people would ask me what I wanted to do when I grow up I simply said "Be a mom." I didn't have goals to go and get a career. I had no schooling goals. I just wanted to be a mom! 

6 years ago today (at 1:57am to be exact) I gave birth to our little lady! 

A little girl to snuggle.

A little girl to help calm the brothers.

A little girl to dress up and put finger nail polish on.

All those things you THINK are important until this past year I really realized what I am doing.

I am raising a future Mom! I have noticed it more and more over the past year. 

The moments where someone is hurt and she goes over to help them. Not because she HAS to but because she WANTS to.

The moments where there is an argument and she goes over to help solve the problem.

The wanting to be in the kitchen with me, helping me out and happy to cook. 

(Which is totally funny because if you know me, I detest cooking! Learning to like it is more like it!)

The wanting to help me fold the laundry, putting together the socks, helping with tasks that she sees me doing.

This is all her volunteering to do it on her own.

Don't get me wrong, she loves to play, but she also loves to learn how to do things. 

For a while I said "No M, you go play."

Then I realized, she will need to be able to do this is her family home.

It was a humbling day but one I am grateful for.

At 6 years old, here are some facts about our little lady.

M is FEISTY!

She is loving and kind.

She is HAPPY to help out!

She cares about other people and their feelings.

She is a great little sister, even if that means pestering her brothers.

She loves to learn!

She has her own sense of style. Oh my. Dressing each day is a 20 minute ordeal of "What colors match with this" and "The polka dots and stripes don't match Mom!" I am not even joking. It sure is fun to watch. I remind myself she might not always be in this stage (she might be though!) so I just try to enjoy moments like this.

She loves the Fancy Nancy books and is quite convinced they wrote the books after her, even though there are a few discrepancies between her and Nancy.

She is a good friend. I watch her with her friends. She love to help them and learn how to get along.

This little Miss is just a joy to have in our home! I love her like there is no tomorrow. She brings me JOY and HAPPINESS! I have been thinking about the Lord's timing with him sending her to our home and how right it really was. He knew that while I wanted a little girl, she needed to come when she did. I am SO grateful for our two amazing boys we have. They are so good to her and patient with her moodiness:) 

Happy Birthday Little Lady! You are a blessing to our home!

Apologies

Today, M did something to tick off B. 

She was flat out mean and rude (it happens from time to time for those who think she is always sweet as can be!) 

The time came for her to apologize. She went up to her brother and gave him a hug, a kiss and an apology. 

I was struck by one thing. 

There was M, the offender and B, the offended. 

B put everything to the side so he could pay attention to M apologizing to him. 

He listened intently and gave her a warm hug at the end.

I feel SO grateful to have these amazing little souls in my life. 

Souls who are teaching ME!

I needed to watch B so kind to M as she apologized so I can learn to be like him when I need to be the forgiver. 

What a blessing these little children are in my life!

Today

Not quite 2 minutes ago I was sitting here at my computer googling (Thank heavens for Google!!!) something to help me explain something to L for school. I will freely admit that I am learning as much as he is in school this year. 

After I am done what I needed to do, L comes up behind me, gives me a hug and says "I bet you needed that."

Oh my goodness. I think more than L needing to be homeschooled this year, I needed him to be homeschooled this year. Our relationship has not always been an easy one. He struggles with the fact that my responsibility is to be a parent first and not his friend. This year I have seen him grow into understanding what my responsibility is and respecting my responsibility. He sure is growing up into a fine young man. He is simply wonderful to be around. Now, if I could convince him to not scare me every time I turn around that would be lovely.