Unplug it week

Hubby and I have been hearing a lot through the churches we have been visiting about allowing things to get in the way of how you are intended to live, like spending useless hours watching tv and surfing the internet. Also we have felt that these things have lead to stagnant empty thinking and lives. So after many discussions  we are unplugging, well for a week at least. We are doing NO TV and limited internet.
  I know you are thinking. Why not just no internet use? Well there are a few reason why. 1. My work is online and I have customers who will expect to get what they paid for this week. 2. We do a lot of research online, i.e. We homeschool and the internet is a valuable tool for gathering info.  3. Our kids use it to connect with their friends during the week.
  So we are going with limited internet use. 30 min. for which ever kid has internet use that day. Only for work for me and as needed for research.Yes there will be World of Warcraft withdrawals for me.

 Now the no TV will be hard at some points too.  Our kids whined a little when it was dropped on them this morning what the new deal is for this week. They have shows they like to watch and follow as much as we do. My husband and I feel though that this time will only stand to increase us. We feel it will bring us closer together as a family. We feel it will teach us to entertain ourselves instead of allowing others to tell us what is entertaining.  We feel it will open up previously unseen opportunities to learn something new.
         I am not saying this will be a breeze, as a matter of fact as I write this I am wondering if a new episode of my new anime series is on now. I will say though that with out the distractions of the TV or internet my productivity increased 10 fold today.  Also my home was kind of peaceful with out the "background" noise form the TV I had become so accustomed to thinking I needed, I will say the ringing in my ears was a little annoying though. Well thank you for reading.

Beauty is in the eye of the mom

I love to sketch and doodle. I have since I was younger. I thought I would show off a little doodle I did with Pixlr - Don't laugh that's not nice :) . I don't have any of my normal drawing tools on my new laptop and thus resorted to using Pixlr. I actually thought the little pencil tool had some neat tips to play with. This just a simple scene scape but a lot of times I find my self doing faces and figures. Yes I a lot of time they tend to lean towards the anime/manga or fantasy. I only do it for fun because I am not all that wonderful as you can tell.  All of my kids have picked up the love of drawing and/or painting. I love to see their creations. I of course display them from time to time. Till a new one comes a long or the picture gets mangled from being pulled down to  be looked at by the artist.  Each one has their own styles and I try to encourage their own styles and talents by showing them the types of styles similar to their and artists similar to them selves. I also show them the renowned pieces of classic art, to which I am fond of.  I will not say my kids are prodigies but I do love their work and hope that it remains an outlet for them during their lives. 

Whatcha doing?

This year my husband and I have been blessed by a very sweet angel in our lives. They are giving my family one of the biggest gifts that has ever been offered. Something so huge I would have never dared dreamed. I was asked to not share what the gift has been but I am more thankful than they will ever know. It really does mean a Merry Christmas to my family. I do feel a lot of stress from some changes coming but I know things will be alright. There are a lot of balls in the air right now. A lot of decisions to be made, a lot of people pulling , some growth that needs to happen and things that need to be said or not said. There are people I would love to talk to but I just don't know if that door will open. I am looking forward to seeing my kids in their play they have been working on. The 27th will be bitter sweet with some very dear friends moving away on that day. I of course am still playing World of Warcraft. Love that game and most of the people I meet on there. I have been trying to grow my intellect- 2 of our wonderful Pastors have been reading and discussing  with us a wonderful book on the topic( to which we went and bought so we could study it at home)- so I bought a book by a new author ( a classic author of course) and am reading that instead of watching TV( well most of the time).  I do love the author so far H.P.Lovecraft. Very intense space Sci-Fi type stories which is amazing considering he died in1937. Trying to learn new words- to increase my vocab. Some have come from my new book and yet others from other sources. Trying to learn new topics- to broaden my view. Mostly computer, social media and web junk but a little science stuff too. Speaking of computers - I recently went over to my dad's new home to celebrate his and 3 of my kids B-days, which was way over due but couldn't be helped. I am so happy for him and my step-mom. The house is gorgeous and big enough to fit our ever growing clan 1grandparent-2parnets-4daughters-2husbands-2boyfriends-5grandkids(like I said big) not to mention 3dogs and 2 cats I think. My grandma was there It was very nice. She used to live in Florida and I really only saw her a little bit as a kid so hopefully I will get to be around her a little more now. It was great though because my kids got to see again and for 2 meet for the first time another 1 of their great grandmas. Actually the last one :(   It was a little odd not being in my childhood home for the celebration. Now both of my sets of parents have moved from my childhood homes. I do look forward to the new memories formed at the new houses.  Oh for those who know me personally and my vast capable of desert dwelling just to avoid it dislike of water.....I have been drinking my water. Sorry I have not posted much lately I have been overwhelmed lately and also haven't really had much to post about.  I have decided to make a few changes on my businesses which will mean slowing down in some areas and picking up in others. I think though the new direction is a good idea and should be in full force in no time. Well thank you for reading my blog. Hopefully will be back soon.  * Little Special side note HI DAD!!!! smiles and waves. I love you. Let's get together soon.

Christmas Traditions

When I was first married my mom gave me a book to read that was a self help happy marriage book. In that book it suggested to fill your home with pictures of you and your spouse, your family etc. Things that depict the good times and the love you have shared over the years. As my family grew the importance of family traditions to help create some of those moments became obvious. So I made a concentrated effort to build family traditions. Family traditions don't have to be huge expensive productions, just something your family does that holds some meaning every year. For us we have a few for the other Holidays. We have always watched fireworks together as a family for the 4th of July, we go to church on Easter and then my mom and/or dad's for an Easter egg hunt for the kids and dinner on Easter, we carve pumpkins and I bake the seeds for Halloween, but Christmas though has the most traditions. Every since Lizard and Bear were small we have decorated and baked cookies together. We all look forward to the fun and the yummy treats. Another tradition is going to go look at Christmas lights as often as possible. Now this has gotten a little more costly thanks to gas prices but still a fave. We load up, turn on Christmas music, sometimes bring along some cocoa and go. We look in some of the neighborhoods known for putting up lights and go to the actual displays as well. Coyote remembered this tradition from last year and when she saw the lights going up around a business center near us before Thanksgiving she squealed with excitement with the anticipation of going to look at lights.   We of course had to explain that it wasn't time yet, that they were just working on it. We have gone on a few spins now and she is just in love with them. She says it looks like candy. Another tradition is that every year we pick a day, usually Christmas eve, and spend all day watching our fave Christmas movies. On Christmas Eve night my husband tells the story of Christs birth and we have cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus. Then that night the kids are allowed to open 1 gift. We of course have Santa for the little ones but he only gives small things in their stockings. No bikes from Santa here. Christmas morning my husbands parents come over and we have homemade Blueberry coffee cake ( I rarely make it outside of Christmas morning making it an extra special treat) and open presents. Then off to the races of going to my mom's house and then my dad's. These traditions are small but are something brings us together. They remind us of the joy of being a family that is sometimes is over looked in the day to day of life.This year I am wanting to add creating awesome DIY gifts for my kids to give to their cousins.  Of course I am using Pinterest to inspire this new tradition. Well that is all for now thank you for reading.

A Full Thanksgiving

I had an amazing Thanksgiving Day.  My hubby, kids and I all went to my Sister SM,s house. She lives in a lovely Victorian home in a gorgeous small town which just added tot he the feel of the day. I brought green bean casserole. Which I freaked about having enough with 32 people attending. Yes I come from a large family and it gets bigger on the holidays when we get with the extended family. It turned out well I brought just enough I think. We played an odd game of charades with things like a "road"  and "riding a bike" as things to act out. We all had a very good laugh over it. I am always amazed at how big my niece and nephews have gotten,especially the ones I don't get to see often. Like my my nephew who is a  little than my oldest. He was very tall and dressed like the Marlboro man. To which my family graciously pointed out to him a few times. We are a family of hard times and the more we like you the worse it will get for but it can be bad if we don't like you too. You just never know with us I guess. We took family photos and that was fun. I did miss going to my dad's this year. That seems to have been a misunderstanding that was fixed and won't happen again, I hope. My husband and I have so much to be Thankful for and the day just pointed out so much of it. The day ended with me unexpectedly going with some of my sisters Black Friday shopping. My first time ever and it was a lot of fun. I achieved my mission of securing a little chair for my niece for my sister while at walmart. Scared my sister L who thought I was a nut taking a toy straight out of her arm, I was actually grabbing so she could grab a bigger item and she didn't hear me tell it was me. Then we went to our outlet mall. I was awesome. We froze outside for about 30min. but the convo was well worth it. The outlet mall was lit up so pretty and it had fake snow it all most transported you to another place. Then we grabbed Mickey D's  and laughed & talked  as everyone was dropped off for the night. Then I rested with my very sweet hubby for a little while before we went to bed. A very full day but a lot of fun. I will share the pictures later. Thanks for reading. 

A Weekend in Review

This past weekend was full of fun and excitement. We have a very dear friend who came over and stayed the weekend with us. His son and my son are good friends , so he came over as well.  It was a good B-day sleep over for bear and my kids cousins Jax and Ruth came over as well for bunny and coyote. Friday was a crazy and full night. There was chatter and giggles until 4 am. Bear and Coyote had a Birthday party this Saturday as well.  We held the party after Bear and Lizard got back from a community out reach they had to got to because their drama group was preforming in it. So it was a later party but it was fun.  My sister S and her hubby, my mom and stepdad, my hubbies parents, our friends EB and Jeffery, the kids friends and some of their cousins all came.  My house is tiny so it was a very full event but lots of smiles and laughter. Bunny got any early present from my mom and stepdad so she was excited too. We had church on Sunday. I was so tired from the previous two days and the hubby was in a lot of pain on top of being tired, but some how we not only got to church but we actually didn't have to rush things like we sometimes we have to. The whole day it was so moving and wonderful. My hubby and I both have been striving for the end goal and for growth in ourselves. Sunday night we just crashed. We watched some of our fave shows and just relaxed. It was nice calm way to end a fun whirl wind of a weekend. This week is bunnies b-day and this weekend is going to be a whirl wind too. I have been making some moves in a side business. I have and I will be teaching a class on using things like twitter and Facebook to help grow your small business. I came up with the class after not only doing for my and other people's business but also after leading a few class type things before on the topic. It really does take a lot of work to come up with the right info ( because Facebook is constantly changing), coming up with the instructions they can take home to help them remember ,etc.  I also have some other new business moves coming up. I am really hopeful that will work out well. Everything so far seems to falling in line. Well  thank you for reading.

Fall fun

 A little late but here are some pics from our fun during Halloween and our fall outing. Unfortunately the pic of their costumes didn't turn out, but we did have some fun.

Carving pumpkins is a tradition.

I like this pic. that my hubby took a picture of me

they were just to cute together Big O and Coyote. They loved riding together

brother bear

Walking back with our friends after a fun little walk

sunny bunny

love this pic of coyote

lizard  around the firepit. We had a really good time around the firepit cooking smores and visiting.

treasure hunting.

most of the group.

 As you see we had a really good time. Well thanks for looking and reading.