Been meaning to post....

There is always something going on.

Yesterday I was listening to the radio and they were having a trivia contest. The lady contestant got the first question: the TV commercial "Don't squeeze the ____". She got it correct, Charmin. Obviously she watches TV, but I remember that commercial from many years ago.

Her second question was "What is the body of water that washes up on the east side of Florida?"

Umm, umm, I don't understand what you mean by body of water. The Pacific?

BEEEEP!

Nope lady. The DJ's were very nice about it and said sorry and gave her a complementary prize. I was thinking, Lady! Turn off the TV and spend some time looking at a map of your own country.

Then, last night, Hubby was telling me a story. He went to El Paso (Texas) for the day to work. He and a co-worker stopped at a nearby fast food place. While they were eating, a soldier came in and called to the general group, "Who has the black BMW with foreign licence plates?" No one answered. He called it out again to the group. No one answered. Finally a worker went out with the soldier and they figured out what was going on. He had bumped a black BMW with New Mexico plates. He is 30 minutes from the border of Texas and New Mexico, but he thought New Mexico was a foreign country.

That isn't the first time we've had that happen. Our bank called us a number of months ago and was explaining they were having a hard time cashing a check of ours because she thought it was from outside the United States. I had to patiently explain that I live in New Mexico and it is one of the 50 states of the USA. DA DING! Problem solved.

People, let's turn off the TV.

Priorities vs. Dreams

Today, a talk mentioned priorities. I wish I could remember more about what was being said. Kids distract me so much that I only get to hear bits and pieces of anything that is ever said.

But whatever was said, got me thinking about priorities vs. passions. (Passions being what I would like to accomplish most, my dreams.) Are my dreams of weaving quality things and publishing a book really good things to be working on? They are not high on what my priorities should be. Really, as a mom, my kids and my home are my priority. Everything I do really should be directed towards my home and family. Anything else is taking away from these priorities.

I guess my priorities have been wrong. I should not work on my dreams because priorities are higher than passions. Instead, I need to be better at teaching my 4 year old his ABCs and counting. I need to be better at playing and reading with my daughter. I need to find out why my smart son is making bad grades (maybe his grades are poor because my priorites have not been right.) I need be caring for and cleaning my house better. I need to be preparing better meals. Anything not related to family and home are not important, right? That is what I was told today.

This makes me sad, though. While I love my children and I try hard to clean my home, I have dreams. But, these dreams should not be allowed to happen. Molly should not exists as anything but a mom/wife and homemaker.

Isn't this right? It is what I'm taught. No one has to answer this. I don't expect it to be answered. I'm just taking a thought I had today and writing it out. It was poorly written as I can't get my thoughts and feelings into the best words and phrases, but writing helps it all out helps a bit.

Mischief

I took two of my kids to the doctor the other day. I also had the two youngest ones along with me.

The nurse took a look at Peanut and said, "She looks like she's a handful."

"Yeah," I replied, "she is."

"She has mischief written all over her face," the nurse went on, "it's something in those deep brown eyes."

I laughed. She hit the nail right on the head with Peanut.

Yesterday vs. Today

Yesterday I was mad.

Today I'm not.

It's better to be like today. (Happy Face)

The Passion Test

I picked up an interesting book a week or so ago at the library. It is called The Passion Test. It helps you to find your dreams and turn them into realities by setting up a plan. I've read the first few chapters and it has the rusty gears in my mind turning.

According to the book, the first thing you do is make a list of the 10 things you really want to do with your life. Then through a process explained in the book, you figure out which dream is highest on your list. The book talks about what you spend your most time doing is what you are going to succeed in. Is what you are doing the most related to that number one dream? If not, you will not realize your dream.

So, this is where I am. I did this test (although, at the moment I could only come up with seven dreams). Some of them were far out and at this time can not be accomplished, like running a bed and breakfast. I would love to do that, but at this time of my life, it can't be done and it isn't very high on my dream list.

My top two dreams are: 1. Get a book published, 2. Weave things of high quality to be displayed or sold.

So what am I doing? Nothing really. I weave when I can, but I could make more time if I planned my day better. I did sent out a couple of query letters to publishers about my book, but nothing since December. I'm not working hard to make either of my dreams come true. Last night, I bounced my thoughts of Hubby (he is so good to listen to his crazy wife and her crazy ideas.) I need my book edited. I can't do that myself. I have made a plan of finding an editor. I can send out more query letters. I'm going to take a basic weaving class this summer. Sure, I can weave, but I'm not efficient and I have tons of problems when I'm threading the loom and getting it ready to weave. I spend about a week from start to finish just threading my loom. I need a professional to teach me the best way to do these tricky things.

If I can do those things, I'll be on my way to making my dreams become realities. Those are simply step one. There will be many more things to do, but sometimes the hardest part is getting started. I'm going to get started on these dreams.

Finished tartan

I had to share my finished weaving project. It's beautiful and I'm so excited about it. It's more than 6 feet long and a little more than two feet wide.I've got enough thread on the loom to make another one the same length or several smaller ones.

the missing cell phone

It's not mine this time! Usually I'm the one to loose things, but this time, it's Hubby's cell phone that is missing. It went missing on Sunday. We haven't found it yet.

We had our oldest son clean his room. He will do anything to get out of that. One thing I don't understand - when you have a trash can in your room, why do you throw peanut shells, used Kleenex, and candy wrappers all over the floor?

I cleaned the other boy's room yesterday. It was a major undertaking, but it was good to do. The room is fairly organized, but still no phone. You wouldn't believe the amount of sand I swept up off the floor in that room.

I'll work on my daughter's room today.

What a weekend

You might remember I posted a blog entry after last Easter about my children fighting while searching for eggs. The older ones would run and grab them all before the little ones could get any. This year was different. Thank goodness. My youngest, who is now two years old, really got the idea of egg hunting this year. She loved it. My oldest wasn't quite into the egg hunt as he has been in years past. It's good that he is growing up, but kind of sad at the same time. I want him to grow up, but I don't want him to grow up.

My 2 year old had fun on her birthday. She really liked opening the presents.

The older daughter got a jump rope for Easter yesterday. She jumped roped most of the day. Her face was red and by the end of the day she was hot, sweaty, tired and easy to upset (because she was so tired). I put her in the shower and got her cleaned and ready to sleep. When we gathered for our night prayer, she was jumping rope again. She really improved. When she started at the beginning of the day, she could hardly jump four times in a row. By the end of the day, we watched her get up to 71 jumps. I wish I had her energy. My jump record for the day was 16. Nothing to brag about. What was funny was when Peanut wanted to jump rope. She would hold both ends of the rope and she would jump up and down (while the rope lay still on the ground). She was so pleased and we cheered her on.

What a fun weekend.

Happy Easter!

Check out my weaving blog to see my latest project. It's looking good!

Inkle and Weave

Happy Easter, everyone.

Peanut is TWO!

I can't believe my little Peanut is two years old.

This year has gone by quickly and we had many adventures and misadventures with Peanut.

She had learned to speak, pretty well for a two year old. I love to hear the things she has to say. She loves to talk on the phone and when she does, it's about her siblings.

She is the creator of many of the biggest messes in the house. She is the ring leader of all the messes made by her and her brother.

She loves the Muppet's and watching the old Muppet Show.

She loves to push her babies around in their baby stroller. She gets frustrated when it gets stuck somewhere and she can't move it.

She loves to be outside and this is sad when we have no yard for her to play in. When I take her to the playground, she loves to climb all over the set and go down the slides.

She has a fantastic laugh. You hear it the most when her siblings are being silly and falling to the floor. She loves that.

She loves to have her picture taken. Right now she makes this weird face when she sees the camera. I guess she thinks she is posing, but it's not flattering.

She still screams and throws a lot of tantrums. She can be frustrating, but she is sweet and funny and I'm happy Peanut is Peanut and two years old.