warm and fuzzy

I was at Target the other day and I actually left the store with the only the items I meant to buy. That's not the intent of this entry but I had to pat myself on the back.

As I walked up to check out, I greeted the lady with a sing-songy "hello!" She seemed surprised that I would have a huge smile on my face. We exchanged a few upbeat words and left the store. As we were leaving, my oldest daughter, Mia, questioned me.

"Mom, did you know her?"
"No, I didn't."
"Then how come you said hello like she was your friend?"
"Because she is my friend."

I felt all warm and fuzzy inside.

Even though I like to brighten up someone's day, sometimes I forget to have the same attitude towards my family. I'll be doing a task (and there are so many!) and my 2-1/2 year old would say, "What's wrong, Mommy?" That's when I have to change the look on my face and stop thinking about all the things I have to do and focus on all the things I get to do.

homeschool creativity

A friend just told me that she bought a dance game that hooked up to the computer. It could help with the PE requirement for her son's homeschool curriculum. This particular one was one that you could dance to Christian music. I haven't tried it yet but I bet it's loads of fun for the whole family. If I got it, I may just get some exercise myself while rocking out to some hip tunes. The box that it came in portrayed a girl dancing...and the picture was funnier than the pictures of people playing the Wii.

doughnuts

We like to take the bus because it is quicker than walking to church from the parking lot. I told my husband that I thought it was funny that the kids were looking forward to their doughnut before they hopped on the bus. He said, "Of course, that's why I take the bus."

As we were getting off the bus this past Sunday, someone said to their son, "Oh there's our pastor, Pastor Rick." That means we made it to church on time. That is the first time in a long time for us. Pastor Rick saw all of the people getting off the bus and said, "There's the doughnut brigade!" He was referring to the sweet, tasty doughnuts in our hands and crumbs on our mouths.

Pastor Rick was so full of excitement, life, and love when we saw him. He shook hands with everyone. One woman said, "Give me that Pastor Rick bear hug!!!" He said afterwards, "Isn't this a terrific day!?"

It really was. It warmed my heart. Very inspirational. It was refreshing to see that our pastor was having a great day.

We took our youngest child of seven months into the crawlers nursery for the first time. I had always liked to hold him during the service so I could snuggle and cuddle with him. But this time, I thought I'd get more out of the message and be able to sit without distraction. So, I took our two year old to class while my husband took the older kids and our seven month old.

Now I know why. Was it coincidence? I don't think so. I took notes on habits for managing money. I guess I needed some help with that.

inspired by

What are you inspired by? 

I often thought that I would love do something with photos. I mainly loved the aspect of photos and photobooks as memory keepsakes. I loved the idea of having little cute and pretty books tell a story of an event. I had created photo calendars and a photobook on my mac for Christmas gifts last year. I really enjoyed them and so did my family.

Then, an entrepreneur friend was looking for some type of business to pursue. I found myself online for hours, searching for something fun and creative that we could do for business. It was then that I found social networking to be a phenomenon that is spreading wildly, not just for the teenagers, but for business and for us stay-at-home moms.

I also found that many bloggers love to scrapbook, love to take pictures, and love to display their kid's cute pictures around to savor every memory.

In the past, I had been too busy being trying to be a good wife, being pregnant, raising four wonderful kids and homeschooling two of them, to look up and see beyond the tasks of each day.

And I have often thought it would be nice to journal. Every time I heard of someone journaling, I would think, "I'd love to do that." But I'd never do it. I would receive journaling books for gifts and the pages would stay blank for lack of time or desire to write. Writing was never my best subject. I was even worse at math.

I started scrapbooking in grade school, before it was called scrapbooking. I didn't like the part where you had to have tiny scraps of paper and letters and cut-outs everywhere, no matter how cute they were. But now there is digital scrapbooking. And now you can TYPE your journal ONLINE.

Those are the reasons that I would start the new year with a journal. I am inspired to do something more, something better with my talents. I think I may have been late to discover my passions, but I don't think it's ever too late to act on them.

What a great day to start a blog - It's my mom's birthday!!!!