End of June

So here we are coming to the end of June.  It was a very fun filled busy month!

I started the summer wanting to do more and spend more time with my kids.  I think we did this very well.  We have done swimming, parks, camping, riding bikes and spending time with family and friends!  What more could you ask for in a summer right?

We have more to go as we start the next month of summer and will have much more fun! 

As my kids are getting older I am learning to enjoy them more and wanting to make as many memories as I can with them.  They grow up soo fast and I want them to grow up with all the fun summer memories that I did and have. 

Can't wait to see what July has in store for us!

Sand Dunes

This past weekend we took the kids down to the Sand Dunes.  I hadn't been there since I was about 9 so it was different than I remembered! 

For one, there were a TON OF PEOPLE!!!  I remember there being few people.  We were still able to enjoy our time there but just very different.

They def were as big as I remember but MUCH MUCH PRETTIER!!!!  They were beautiful and they looked like big mounds of silky chocolate mousse!  hehe  I could look at them for hours! 

One of the thoughts that kept going through my head was how in the world did all this sand get right in the middle of the mountains?  God is AMAZING!!  Such beauty!  Such mystery!  Def in AWE of God!

I recommend going there but not so much with little kids.  We will go back one day but not until our kids are both done with naps and we dont' have to carry them on the hike.

5K

Right now I am training to run a 5K and recently have been able to run 4 and 5 mins at a time.  I haven't done this since elementry school!  However, I have recently realized that I can run longer when I listen to specific songs on my ipod.

So tonight I am running and listening to the songs and singing!  I realized that this is going to become very dangerous for me as I have found myself almost running off the treadmill because I get so focused into the song and dancing and singing that I forget I am running.

As I look this danger head on, I will continue to run and listen to this music because it makes it more fun and who knows, maybe you will all see a you tube video of me falling off the treadmill soon!  hehe

Anyway, 5K,  here I come!

Camping

I love camping!  I grew up camping and have stayed in a tent, camper, pop-up, and motor home.  I love the whole experience of camping.  I love that you get to be out of your comfort zone and you get to see God's beauty up close.

When I was younger my dad took us soo many places and I can't wait to show my kids everything that I have seen.  It's also exciting to show my husband these places also because he is from Canada and he hasn't seen some of these places either. 

Growing up we always went camping with my dad, with family, or with friends.  I am in the process of planning a camping trip right now for me and my little family.  It's become a very stressful even at as I dont' really know what I am doing.  It's hard to plan a trip to a place that you went to when you were like 7 or 8 and that nobody else has been to recently. 

I am very excited to go and to show my family this amazing place but until we get there, I'm gonna be pulling my hair out to make sure it all comes together.

Joy to the Lord!

I enjoyed church this morning more than I have in a very long time!  I left there feeling ready for my day and maybe even the week! 

The songs we sang were great and I just wanted to belt the words out as loud as I could be was a bit worried what the people around me would think hehe.  I'm not the best singer when in public but I do think I am fantastic in my truck!

The joy I feel when praising God is one of the best feelings ever! I can tell when I sing if I am singing to sing or if it's coming from my heart.  I get goose bumps and I always get tears in my eyes.  It's an amazing feeling.

I listen to the radio pretty much every day and all day long.  I love to sing and I love that the radio station I listen to allows my kids to be able to listen at any time and they sing along with me. 

I think that anytime I am in a down mood, I just need to sing.  I like to sing from morning to night and dance around like a goof.

I think from now on, I am going to sing all the time to lift my spirits.  I'm going to sing when I talk to my kids and maybe even my husband!  Ok, I think this may be a little too far hehe

I hope that everyone one day gets to feel the joy I feel when singing!

Just one of those days!

Do you ever have one of those days where you are just crabby and you don't know why?  For me, that is today!

I find myself snapping at my kids over everything it's very annoying.  Well the things that they are doing are normal things that they do every day and are told to stop so they aren't doing anything different. 

I'm guessing I need more sleep.  Maybe I am trying to pack too many things into a small amount of time.  My mind doesn't ever stop anymore and for once I would like it to be quiet!

Today is a very blah day for me and I really hope I over come this funk before it gets worse! 

Maybe I should run!  hehe

New Day!

It's strange how you can feel like nothing changes from day to day in life.  I have noticed that each day I seem to wake up seeing a new day. 

I don't know if this is because we finally found a new church and I feel like my life has purpose again or if it's something else.

I do know that I LOVE IT!!!

Seeing each day as a brand new day makes you look at every part of your life a new way.

Come to think about it, I have been reading this book that has kinda changed my way of thinking.  I treat my kids different and I'm not yelling as much.  It may also be that school is out and I'm no rushing around from morning till dark getting stuff done and keeping things organized.

I also started running and that could also be my stress outlet so then I have nothing to vent out. 

Not sure but I am really enjoying.

Friends of Seasons

It's interesting how you grow up learning to make friends and no matter what happens in your life, you still always are making friends. 

I have spent the last 4 months pondering the meaning of friendship and what it means to me and how it fits into my life.  I have come to the conclusion that you def CAN have too many friends.  It is possible to always make friends but you only have soo much room in your life for lifetime friends.

Looking at my contacts on my phone, email, and facebook, I realize that I know alot of people.  More than I ever thought I knew to be honest.  As I look at each of these lists, I think about the relationship I have with each person and weather it's a real friendship or not.  To my sadness and surprise, I don't have very many friendships that I can see lasting a lifetime.  I'm ok with that though because it makes me feel less stressed. 

When you have soo many people on your list you feel like you have to be in contact with each person at least once a week or even once a month.  I honestly dont' have time for that.  This may sound selfish and so be, it but I have a life, a family, and a father that I love and they will all be there weather I have friends or not so these are my priorities.

I have thought alot about the types of friendships I have and who I have trust with and who I have tried to have trust with.  I thought about the friendships I have worked hard at and got nothing in return.  I never intended to have a friendship where I expected anything but you at least hope for something on the other end. 

All these things have made me come to the realization that friends come and go whether you want them to or not and there is nothing you can do.  Just like seasons, things change and you do your spring cleaning and let some go. 

I am to that point right now where I have worked very hard to build friendships with people and nothing!  So just like seasons, I will move on and watch them go by.  Happy to see them at the beginning of the season, and then happy to see them go at the end. 

Running

So this week I have started running on the treadmill.  My friend asked me to run a 5K with her in October and so I said yes.  But I have also decided to try and run one in July. 

I'm not a runner to start with so this has taken a lot for me to finally start running.  I LOVE to walk on the treadmill so it was sad to move on but I am really enjoying the running.  I am only running for a minute at a time but it's still nice. 

It's strange how great I feel while running and the feeling of knowing that I am running makes me feel good about myself.

The last time I ran was in 6th grade.  So my goal is to be able to run a mile without walking.  I am very excited to reach this goal and it all works with my overall goal is to become healthier.

So on I go and continue running for one minute at a time.

Adventures in Potty Training

So I have been needing to start potty training my daughter for some time now but I am really just lazy and don't want to do it!

I had decided to wait till she was 3 and then after that I changed it and decided to wait till my son was out of school because then I could stay home and focus on her.  This idea has been AWESOME!!!  (Thanks Becca)

So we started last week and had a set back because the pull ups we use for nap, it turns out she is allergic to them so we needed to wait till that went away.  So we started back up on Monday and she had one accident the whole day!  That was because she was playing outside and didn't make it in the house in time to go. So that was ok. 

The last couple days she has just been doing AMAZING! Very few accidents and she has become little miss independent.  She won't let me go in the bathroom with her because she wants to do it on her own.  I'm ok with that as long as I don't sit in pee when I go hehe.

So many times people have told me when and how to potty train my kids (mostly family).  But when it comes down to it, nobody knows me or my kids better than me.  Nobody knows when they are ready except me!  Every child is different and for me and my daughter, this was the best possible way to train her and I would never change that.

My thinking for both my kids was that they had to be trained before they could go to school and that was all I cared about.  The ppl that gave me advise, they were not here every day to change the diapers so not sure why they couldn't just let me do it to work for us.  It becomes very frustrating when you have family stop by once a month who complains that they should trained and I learned quickly to just say, "Well as long as they are before they start school they will be fine." 

Being stressed while doing anything is never good and this is one of those times.  I am not worried about anything right now the training is going smoothly and better than I could ever have expected.

It looks like when school starts, she will def be ready and I give all the glory to God for giving me what I could handle!

Thank you JESUS!!!!