Life Lessons

45 Life Lessons 

by Regina Brett, columnist for The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH (May 2006)

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's okay to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11 .Make peace with your past, so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's okay to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful, or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you, really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and up to no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29 What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Kids bed time

Photo by: pinkisawayoflife

I have to admit I have lost my touch this week with my kids sleeping schedule, mainly because when the baby takes a nap I tend to get involved in other things and forget that I should really limit that nap to 2 hour or less or at least he should be up by 3 pm.  UGH!  Did I not learn my lesson with the first two kids?

Anyway, to make matters worse I also let my little peanut (6) watch a movie in bed.  Usually TV is not allowed until weekends but I figured swimming made her tired, she did all her homework and the few chores she gets to do after dinner; surely she'll drop off before the movie has a chance to get going....WRONG!! She came down the stairs around 9:3o pm, 90 minutes after she went to bed, I mean, to watch TV.  The problem with this scenario was that the baby was also awake...huh! The baby, he's really a toddler who happens to be really wrapped around his mommy's leg like a little monkey.  

Lately that little monkey has a way of saying "betos, betos" and laying his wet sloppy kisses all over my face.  Betos by the way is his way of saying besos in Spanish which means kisses.  I can't even get angry, they are so loving and so cute.

However, we have a very tired mommy, daddy is already snoring and so are the teens and the two young children wanting more attention, affection, a book read, a song and a prayer.  I was lucky to make it through the first few lines of her book.  Why are they so wired?  The darn TV!  It's out of the room then I wont be tempted to quiet them down with the boob tube and as for those naps, I must keep them between 11 and 3, no later.

They are now both in bed, quiet, listening to classical music and hopefully falling into a deep slumber.  I'll stay up until I know they are asleep, for sure this time.  In the mean time I am going to relax with some tea and my PC.

Happy New Year - traveling with kids

Here it is, the new year, 2009! It is hard to believe a whole year has gone by. It seems like just the other day I was nursing a baby and waiting for hubby to email or call from Iraq. He's been home a year, the baby is now 2 and my oldest is getting ready for college. WOW!! So many new things have happened in the last 12 months like my 6 year old reading a chapter book. She has fallen in love with the adventures of Ruby Gloom by Rebbecca McCarthy and my teen girl who avoided reading anything is now addicted to reading. I never thought I'd hear myself saying, "put that book down!" The two year old is repeating everything he hears and that's just scary sometimes. It's amazing how much language development there is between 2 and 3 years old. I love it!

Some things we learned during our vacation-- we drove from the Virginia Peninsula to New Jersey - midway up the state. On the way back we hit Pennsylvania, Delaware and Northern VA. We learned that:

--some people don't realize their showers don't work because the kids never complain and the adults never use that particular bathroom. We used several showers and had many different sleeping arrangements along the way. The showers went from a trickling drip out of the shower head to a shower with uncontrollable temperature to the best one which was a strong, perfectly warm, long lasting shower. You never know what's coming so be prepared to skip a shower if necessary - carry lots of personal wipes :-)

--it is best to force kids to use the bathroom before a long drive or you will be making many stops, sometimes, one per child...grrr!

--packing the makings for a meal is more cost effective and takes up a bit of time if stuck in traffic - so we pack a soft cooler with peanut butter, jelly, apple sauce, fresh fruit, drinks, snacks a butter knife and a small cutting board to prepare lunch on the go. The meal is fresh and nothing goes to waste.

--pack lots of books, magazines, crayons, coloring books, etc. Reading is a great way to pass the time.

--charge all electronics (DVD players, car games, iPods, cell phones, etc) a day before the trip and keep extra batteries and a small screw driver in the car for toys that require them, just in case.

--a GPS unit is a really good thing to have when you want to avoid massive traffic jams or at least to find a detour in the event of unforeseen traffic jams. We borrowed one and it saved us a good four hours.

--finally, it is important to be realistic and tell the kids how long the ride will be. If they don't really understand the concept of time, create a game in advance to help them count down the hours, i.e. draw a clock on construction paper and put an x on the clock number for every hour that passes then you'll know how many are left to go.

I hope these tips will help others planning to go on the road. I would love to hear from you and what tricks help you when traveling with children or just to keep you busy on the road.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! My trip isn't over, going home today {{sigh}}.

Are you ready for Christmas?

What does that really mean anyway?  I hear it alot, just about everywhere I go people ask me "are you ready for the holidays?" or "are you ready for Christmas?" or my favorite, "are the kids ready for Santa?"  Well, duh! They are, they were born ready to get new toys and new clothes and just about anything new. 

My idea of ready has more to do with the emotional and spiritual connection we make with this special day.  There's so much stress during this time of year and it's mostly related to the whole "shopping, baking, card and newsletter writing, making the deadline at the post office" thing.  

Well this year I decided, sort of unwillingly, that I wasn't going to stress about all that. I had faith that things would fall into place in due time and I need not worry so much about meeting deadlines and sending cards.  Did I stress about my long list of things to do? Yes, I did, for about 5 minutes then I thought long and hard about what would happen if I didn't send out cards on time or if I didn't bake the cookies before Friday.  Nothing would happen.  Except maybe that I would be stressed, exhausted, and very hormonal, if you know what I mean.  

Since one of my goals is to start taking care of me first then everyone else I had to just give up all that and do only what I could.  Relaxing and taking my time was the best thing I ever did. Everything just fell into place this week.  All the painting was done last week, the carpet was installed on Thursday and by Sunday evening we had a beautiful tree, by Monday evening the tree was fully decked.  The kids had a great time talking about the ornaments we have collected over the years, many of which were home made.  

Children bring such joy to the holiday season, even when they talk about what St. Nick will be bringing and what new toys they want, they also have a way of making it fun to sing Christmas carols while decorating the tree and while baking cookies.  We watch festive movies, play fesive music and talk about what Christmas means to us.
Each year my kids take turns putting the angel on the tree.  I take pictures of the event because in the past we have forgotten and that usually leads into an argument and someone walks away mad.  This is my 18 year old son whom will soon graduate High School and go off to fullfil his dreams of a career in music.  No doubt he'll do great but I will miss him when he's gone. Colletively, we all decided that he should put the angel on the tree this year, regardless of who's turn it was.

We had the best time decorating the tree.  I ordered picture cards from Snapfish.com and had them printed at Wallgreens, they were ready the next day and in the mailbox by Monday.  I had a chance to attend a "girls only party" with my best friend; I bought everything I needed to and wanted to buy and I still have a day to spare.  Tomorrow we will prepare an awesome meal, attend Christmas Eve service at our Chapel and then, the next day, we'll sit back and enjoy watching the kids open their presents.

It will be fun and I didn't have to loose sleep over it.  As for the cookies and bread, they will be done tomorrow morning, before anyone has a chance to pull themselves out of bed.

From my family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas and prosporous and healthy new year!!

Final Exams Today!

Here it is, the day of my finals and you wonder "why the heck aren't you studying instead of blogging?"  Well, I know what I know.  I can't possibly memorize all this stuff and my brain is sort of fried.  I need an outlet for a few minutes.  But please, wish me luck.  I have  a headache and did not sleep much last night.  Once this is all over I will have a long break to focus on family, the holidays, and relaxing without thinking about school work.  I can't wait!

So here I go...hope everyone has a great day and for those of you in the middle of the ice storm, may you soon return to your warm and cozy home.

My house, our home

We have lived in this house for 3 years now and have begun the process to move again next summer.  We are military and the Navy is making the final decisions about our next duty station.  What does that mean?  Well, it means looking for a new home, new schools, new friends, new neighbors, etc.  It also means selling the current home, packing, cleaning house, painting and most important dealing with emotional issues from the kids who would rather not move.  That is subject for a different blog.  We don't like to leave our friends but that is the nature of our life in the military.

My house has been sort of painted since I moved in.  The interior was painted in a comercial, sort of off white, looked more like dirty wall color.  Every trim, baseboard, door, and crown molding was the same color.  I like color, must have color in my house so I took on that job as soon as I could after moving in.  In the mean time I was going to school, working at the gym, toting a pre-schooler around and just when things couldn't get busier I had a baby and my husband was sent to Iraq for 7 months.  Well, obviously, no painting was going to get done during that time and after that I had a baby to entertain and many other things to do so, OK, my walls would just have to stay 1/2 painted until I could get back to that project.  How frustrating.

Recently, my brother-in-law Mosh found himself out of work, due to the collapse in the economy.  He is a mason and painter by trade.  I offered two weeks of life with my family in exchange for his expertise in painting.  That was the best decision ever for both.  He stayed with us until this morning and in the mean time spent every single day, except weekends, painting my walls, doors, trims, etc.  He did such an excellent job and always cleaned up and put everything back the way he founded or the way I wanted it to be. He also went fishing with my husband and they actually brought home dinner.  Very cool.

My house looks great, well the walls, because the messes kids make never seem to go away.  We are having carpet installed on Thursday, wood floor in the foyer and tile in the kitchen are all done and the beautiful cabinetry my husband hand-made last year for the kitchen is clean and looking great.  The reality of all this works is that I'm really doing this to clean up the place and hopefully sell it next year.  I'm not holding my breath and would rather not break up the family but right now things are not looking to good from a sellers perspective.  We soon shall see.

It is a great house, 4 large bedrooms, 2.5 bath, master bath with garden tub, nice neighborhood and good schools.  Close to the Army, Navy, Cost Guard and Airforce Bases in the area and in the heart of history.  The beaches are close by, rivers, fishing, boating, parks, etc.  Ok so there it is and will continue to be.  My house can be a great home for a large family like mine.

WOW

It's been too long since I had a second to sit at my computer to read, write and man, I miss it, I really miss not being able to share and discuss.  This is my time, ok, well maybe not really mine because I do have four kids and a husband.  Anyway, I'm still here people.  I will be back to my old self never but I will make an effort to come back and share with everyone.

'tis the season to be happy so I will!!

Until later, stay safe!