Smack Down

Here we are, happy weekend folks! We are coming up on another week full of busy schedules and crazy goodness. The other day I had an AH-HA, slap in the face, you're so funny, God moment. It was pretty real.

I went to the park with my friends children. We had a lovely taco bell picnic and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. From a distance I hear a lady yelling and overemphasizing every phrase to her child. As I mumbled "that's annoying" under my breath I looked over and noticed it was a lady, whose blog I follow.

(insert gulp, deep breath)

It's like a reality TV show, you feel like you know the people. You know their life story, their situations, and everything else. It was at that moment I knew exactly what she was doing, and why she was doing it. She's not annoying, but yes overemphasizing. For a good reason.

These characteristics are mine. I see them, I fix them, and I do them. That's my schedule. Haven't you heard the term, "you are what you do"? On a daily basis I work with children who have multiple disabilities and we work as a team. We overemphasize everything we do and we practice, over and over again.

We are all given passions and desires to reach after. Some it takes years to figure out and for others its been pretty darn clear from the beginning. Working with children who have multiple disabilities is not a job it's a lifestyle. Every week I am blessed by the students and I am encouraged to be a better person because of them.

So where am I going with this?

We can be so quick to judge, and make comments just like I did.

It was the moment at the park that I was nudged and given a reminder. Instead of being quick to criticize, look in the mirror and know you may be just like that person.

It was a defining moment.

chits & chats

The weather finally opened up and the much needed rain slowed down. A lovely lady decided to kick it with me this saturday morning. That lovely lady is my cousin Jessica. We sipped on coffee, experimented with some poached eggs and sipped on coffee some more. Pure bliss.

Around noon we finally decided to crawl out of our pj's and take a walk. Boy was it beautiful. The clouds made you feel like it was a fairytail or a painted picture. God's hands were all over it. He's no joke!

Once we arrived to the coffee house we drank some more coffee and got our talk on. We talked about life and the plans we have for the future or thought we had. It's like one day wanting so badly to be a grown up and all of sudden your talking weddings and children, in a matter of bippety boppity boo! I think life can get a wee bit crazy to the point we lose our focus. We tend to think that someday we would get that one thing we thought could fix everything, (losing weight, landing the dream job, getting married, having a baby, etc) yet we will find that we are still ourselves living in this crazy world. Taking time and spending it with those who love and care for us really is encouraging. We need those people to help us navigate our lives.

The talk and the walk were wonderful, even though everytime I go to Starbucks I feel like I'm cheating on my local coffee joint. It's just not within walking distance. (sigh) Every once in awhile a walk frees the mind and gives us hope that This is the Day and to fully embrace it for what it's worth. To remember there is no right way, just a whole lotta good enough ways.

10 days

I have all kinds of things to say today and talk about. I have fun things, achy things, and things I would love to tell you but don't have the time. All in all. This Easter break was great to say the least. I slept more than usual, woke up to eat only sugar, gluten and caffein. Pretty much all the things I'm not supposed to eat! Yup, that was my vacation. 

I've shared many laughs, and memorable conversations with my great grandma who turned the fabulous age of 95. Yes I said it, 95 years young. 

I cooked many meals these past 10 days for several different groups of people in my home. (Ok, maybe I wasn't the chef but I assisted.) 

I played with my twin cousins from the bay area that are 3 going on 30. That was a hoot. First question they asked me, "Why aren't you married"? Fantastic right... How do you answer that?!

I also spent part of Easter sunday with my recently widowed grandmother. This was her first holiday without grandpa Glenn. 

To put it in all in perspective, it was a nice 10 days. Good, bad, better, and surely blessed! Blessed because of this ....

Amazing love how can it be, that you my King would die for me?

God's love for me was THAT great.- Now that's cool!

Lucky Treat!

I'm pretty sure I've got some Irish roots in me! I love everything about St. Patrick's day. This post is a bit late to share ideas, but you can always hold them off until next year! Better yet, this treat can be used year round! I have plans to make a traditional Irish dinner, play some fun games, oh, and wear green of course!

Here is another one of those ideas I copied from Pinterest. I give credit to these ladies for their creative minds!

The pictures are grainy, thanks to iphone camera!

Ingredients/Materials-

Box of Lucky Charms cereal

Plastic snack-sized party bags

Card stock

Printable labels (from www.eighteen25.blogspot.com)

*I printed out the labels so they were smaller (about the size of a business card).

Here's a little Irish blessing for ya!

May those who love us, love us;
and those who don't love us,
may God turn their hearts;
and if he doesn't turn their hearts,
may he turn their ankles 
so we'll know them by their limping. 


Happy St. Patrick's Day ya'll! 

For Crayon Out Loud!

Valentine's day is a few days away. It's just another one of those holidays where stores try to get us to spend money. Instead of spending a fortune on valentines, I decided to create something from home. Something useful.  Something that doesnt give into the sugar high that most of our children will go through.

Anywho, this week I was searching through my newest addiction Pinterest and found this fun idea. My heart was set on making a home made craft for my students. Heart crayons. Little time and 2 dollars worth of money, batta bing!

The most tedious part was striping the paper off each crayon. A way to avoid fingers hurting would be to soak them in water over night. This will help the paper come off.  It was abosultely necessary.

The majority of the tutorials that I looked at showed pictures of aluminum pans. A crafty friend from church suggested her silicone cut out instead. She claimed it worked like a gem, and it did.

I bought 2 boxes of 64 rose Art Crayons from the local Dollar Tree. I split them up by color and filled the pan accordingly.

I made a tag to go with each crayon that said "For Crayon Out Loud, Happy Valentine's Day" and "You Color My World".