Hearts Make Families: January 2010

Friday, January 29, 2010

Friday Follow: A Celebration of Followers

Welcome to the third Friday Follow celebration hosted by One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families and Midday Escapades! We invite you to join us every Friday to get more blog followers and to follow other interesting blogs.

The Blog Hop is the same at each of our three hosts blogs so you do not have to add your blog at each site. Just one - but you can follow each blog. Here is the great part, We will follow you back.

Here's how YOU can join the celebration:

Link up your blog name and URL using the MckLinky below - Only need to on one blog
Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots - We will follow you back
Follow as many blogs as you'd like to have followers
Comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow
Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow

Let's make this year the best ever for blog followers! Spread the word about Friday Follow by grabbing our button for your blog and come celebrate again every Friday. Feel free to also send out a tweet, blog, stumble or share the news in your own special way!

Many thanks to Mary "Rock"wood-Crabtree of Blog Rock for designing the cool Friday Follow button. Doesn't it rock?

Happy Friday Follow!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Tips to brighten up your bathroom

I always look for cheap ways to brighten up my house. Lately I've been looking at my bathroom. Honestly I don't like it much. It needs help drastically. So I did some research and found some little things to do to help brighten it up rather cheaply.

Here are my tips to you:

Repaint walls. Paint isn't all that expensive so refreshing the color does wonders to brighten up the room.
Replace the old hardware such as handles and drawer pulls.
Change your towels. Toss out the old frazzle looking towels and buy some new ones and hang them up. Make sure that you pick out bright colors to pull the eye.
Change your shower curtain or window treatments.

If all else fails, update your bathtub, sink and shower for a fresh looks. Remember anything you put in your bathroom within reason will only improve the value of your house.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Black and White Photos

So simple and beautiful

Don't black and white photo's say more than anything

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Post Its With SupahMommy

As is traditional with my blog, I am joining Supahmommy for Post It Tuesdays. This week, though, I am going to include some extra comments about why the Post It is.

Now if you would like to join us, please do. I actually adore doing these. If you need help learning how to make your very own post-its, please go here. Please be sure to link up with Supahmommy as well.

Housekeeping first:

Other stuff:

More to come need to run to my brother's now. I won't be able to get to everyone's this week to respond. My email is down. My computer is down. I'm suppose to get the computer back on Friday and I'll be on old desktop til then. Its slower than molasses. But I'm trying to get to you all.

Monday, January 25, 2010

That's it I am STRIKING

I am seriously tired of being the bad cop in my house. Come on my kids are wonderful but they aren't perfect!!! Why does my husband think that its ok to come home at night and act that way? They could have driven me insane all day. He walks in and they are perfect. Why does he get to be the good cop?

Jason was swinging from the fan last week but he's perfect.

Jason poured water all over my hardwood floors today...but he's perfect.

Faith knocked Jason down five times..but she's perfect.

Well guess what??? I'm not perfect. I'm not the perfect mom. I don't clean sometimes. I don't cook that great! My kids eat cereal for dinner when I want. I feed my kids spaghetti even though my husband hates it. I get mad. I get even too. At least I get even when my husband acts like I'm just exaggerating the situation. I went on strike! I got up looked at him. You know what he did this morning again??? He woke me up for no reason. Faith didn't have to go in today. We had a doctor's appointment and he knew it. He woke me up anyway.

Told me to get up and start cleaning or some such nonsense. This time...ladies and gents.. you will be proud of me. I looked at him and said, "You stay home, big Idiot. I'm not doing a thing today. I'm on strike!"

He laughed at me and left. HE LAUGHED AT ME. Oh I was mad. Ok let's get real here. I am not going to NOT feed my kids so I did do that. I did take Faith to the doctors. I let them have the run of the house all day. Yes it drove me insane. But its the principle at this point.

Ken walks in the door at night. Looks around. Looks at the kids. Looks back at me. I just looked at him. I was sitting in my recliner. He starts hollering about the mess. Peck Peck Peck on the computer. Then he starts hollering about the blog. Peck Peck Peck. Then he goes in the kitchen. Yup no dinner. Peck Peck Peck. Looks over the counter at me. "Can you get up and make dinner?" Peck Peck Peck "NO, I'M ON STRIKE!" Peck Peck Peck.

"You can't be on strike!"

"Oh YES I can. Fend for yourself!" and I sailed out the door. Going to spend his money at Borders!!!

Man sometimes this blog is better than therapy.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Two Worlds

Two minds living in two different worlds.
Two worlds that are felt,
that are seen in the eyes,
In the eyes of one boy and one girl.

Two worlds. Two people with two hearts.
They know their worlds are apart.
Two worlds with one wish under the sun,
One wish that two worlds will be one.

Two worlds. Two souls with one destiny.
Two loves that were meant to be.
Two paths intertwined into one road.
Someday, they’ll have each other to hold.

If you look close, I think you’ll find
That those two worlds are yours and hers.
And even though your worlds apart,
Your whole world is her heart

Note: I found this is a old journal. I wrote it during a time that I belong to an online hopelessly romantic chat room. I was writing lots of stuff back then and very hopeful. I wrote it to two friends of mine who were in love. They lived far away from each other. Love can cause miracles to happen.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Milemarks for the Blog and Housekeeping

When I first started this blog, it was simply to keep an ongoing journal for my kids. I'm finding that it is starting to have a life of its own. I'm so very blessed to have so many new bloggy friends. To have found so many people that I can sit down and talk with it even if its online. I can't wait until I can meet some of you in person that would be truly amazing.

I've been blogging since July 2009 now. I have over 300 posts out there. WOW that is so amazing to me. I have over 400 followers. I don't know why you all are still here. I love writing. I never knew how much until I started this blog. I love reading as well. Though I don't have as much time as I would like to do so. I've been through so much since I started this blog. I've tried to share with you as much as possible.

You were all there when I was depressed after visiting my sister in October. We still haven't spoken to each other since. I've tried. She hasn't responded. It hurts but when I say I'm back I am. I've been very scattered every since the visit. I haven't been around to all my favorite blogs. Although I have been reading. I simply haven't been me. Well I am now. I'm back. I have a new reborned energy that I'm so happy about. I will be coming to your blog soon if I haven't made it there this week. I'm coming.

I was literally amazed at how well the Follow Friday blog hop went over last week. I'm still trying to catch up. Although I have made it to each person's blog that jumped last week. That took me 3 days. I loved finding all the new blogs and catching up on the old ones. Can you believe that 136 blogs joined? To me that is simply amazing. And the blog hop is coming once again.

Ok so some housekeeping that I need to get out of the way:

1. I think I've been double taxing myself. I try to respond to every post by email unless of course you have the no-reply blogger dot com that drives me nuts.

NO REPLY AT BLOGGER DOT COM

I mean I hate it.. I despise it. I want to respond to you all by email. I love responding by emails. I love talking to you all. I want to know about my readers. So I respond to every email I get. Until I see the hated "no reply at blogger dot com." To make it easy for you to remove it, I am going to post it here for you. The directions are as follows:

Go to your Dashboard on Blogger dot com. Hit your edit profile, right next to your picture, avatar or whatever else you have showing. Scroll down to the line that says : Show my email address and CHECK THE BOX. Hit save.

Now, for those of you who do not want a regular email address to show, go to Gmail, Yahoo or any other number of places and get a FREE, yes FREE, email account and set it up.

I'm going to start just jumping over to your blog instead of responding by email if I would have just answered it with just "thanks" or something like that. I do like to respond but unless it's an answer or something. I'll just hop to your blog. How do you handle this?

2. Word verification people.. I hate it. And as I noticed from my comments so do most of my bloggy friends. So I'm giving you the heads up here how to fix it.

WORD VERIFICATION

Ok I hate hate this as well. I don't know why but my eyes do not do this well at all. Or I hit save and then close. Guess what happens? You don't get my comment and sometimes I don't realize. So I might have been commenting all along. Now to turn off this awful thing and to help all of your commenters' eyes, do the following:

Go to your Dashboard at blogger dot com. Click on Settings, which is under the name of your blog. Click on Comments, which is on the top of the page. Scroll down until you see this: Show word verification for comments? Click the box that says NO. Click Save settings at the bottom of the page. Please do not leave this page until you have saved settings.

I am begging you to fix these things to help me get to know each of you even better in the future.

3. Big ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm moving to Wordpress. I just set up my Daddy hosting. So bear with me while I do.
Hoping you all have a great Saturday.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Friday Follow: A Celebration of Followers

Welcome to the second Friday Follow celebration hosted by One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families and Midday Escapades! We invite you to join us every Friday to get more blog followers and to follow other interesting blogs.

The Blog Hop is the same at each of our three hosts blogs so you do not have to add your blog at each site. Just one - but you can follow each blog. Here is the great part, We will follow you back.

Here's how YOU can join the celebration:

Link up your blog name and URL using the MckLinky below - Only need to on one blog
Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots - We will follow you back
Follow as many blogs as you'd like to have followers
Comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow
Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow

Many thanks to Mary "Rock"wood-Crabtree of Blog Rock for designing the cool Friday Follow button. Doesn't it rock?
Happy Friday Follow!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Bend, Breathe, and Conceive Fertility Yoga DVD and Fertility Flame Candle Review

At first when I was asked if I would be willing to do a review on the Bend, Breathe and Conceive Fertility Yoga DVD with Anna Davis, Ph.D., RYT, I was surprised. I immediately told Amy at Fairhaven Health that I would not be a good candidate for the review since I am not capable of having children. She assured me that was not an issue. They have a lot of different people doing the reviews. They, also, have lots of mommy products that I think you should all check out. You can find them here. They are, also, on Facebook at http://www.fertilaid.com/facebook and Twitter at http://twitter.com/FertilAidAmy.

This video is presented by Anna Davis, Ph.D., RYT who is a neurologist, a science educator, and a certified yoga instructor. She has been practicing yoga for 25 years.

Anna’s voice is soothing and calm. In the first part of the video, she talks about restoring mind-body integration and balance which I think this video does. I liked how she explained scientifically how doing the yoga will ease the stress that you experience when you are dealing with trying to get pregnant. I remember those feelings and they are hard to cope with.

I haven't done much yoga. I have always wanted to get back into it. I really enjoyed the video. I found it to be very calming and relaxing. It is a great stress reliever. My husband said I appeared more happy and positive after using it for a week. I, also, noticed that I am beginning to tone. I did it about 3 times a week for the two weeks that I have had it. It is a 60 minute workout so plan on spending the time.

I have to say with my limited knowledge of yoga that I did find it hard to pick up the poses that she is doing. She did not give explanations on how so I did struggle for a bit with them. But I did figure them out as well. She presented the relaxing techniques very well. I would definitely recommend it to you.

While I was trying out the video, I have also been trying the Fertile Flame Fertility Candle. I light it every night about 15 minutes before I go to bed. It smells incredible and helps to calm me after dealing with my crazy kids. It smells like I put jasmine in the air. Surprising my husband has been enjoying it as much as me.

It contains all natural wax infused with scents of chamomille, jasmine, and ylang ylang. It has a cotton wick. There is no wasted wax. It's free of pollutant and chemicals which means its especially good for you if you are pregnant.

Please go over to Fairhaven Health and check out their products. You'll be happy you did.

Disclaimer: The product in this review was provided to me free of cost for the purpose of conducting this review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are not influenced by monetary or other means of compensation.

Teach your kids about money

One of the biggest things parents have to learn is how to educate their children about finances. I don't mean to just give them the money. Truthfully that will never make them street wise. I believe that how my parents raised me about money is the best way. You have to appreciate what you have before you can really appreciate things. My mother has always told me that I would never understand why people get upset when others just jump on their furniture until they bought their own couch. Let me tell you that are so true. I get irate every time I see Jason run across the room and throw himself on the couch.

I’m definitely not a pro on this subject but here are some of the tricks that I have learned over the years from various people:

Start with you – If you don’t understand money, you can’t teach your child. Learn about how to keep a budget and staying within those limits. Learn about cost saving things. Learn about investing. Learn about savings. Go to the experts and find out so that you can save yourself money as well.
Teach them by example – Now I’m not telling you to explain all your bills. I wouldn’t want to do that and neither I’m sure would you. But I do keep a calendar that shows when a bill is going out or is due. They see me keeping an actual system they know that you are doing it. Explain that accidents do happen and how to pick up from it. Or when they want something special and you have a bill, show them the bill on the calendar. This, also, helps to keep you accountable for your finances.
Set an allowance up - Start your children on allowance early. Now this doesn't mean that you just give them money every week. They need to earn. By earning the money, they feel like they are accomplishing something. A lot of people do the allowance by age such as if you have a 7 year old, you might give her $7.00. That is a dollar per age. If that’s too steep, just lower it down. But always do it so that it’s equal across the board with your kids. Now remember you are not just going to hand this money out for nothing, have them do chores around the house like doing the dishes, cleaning their rooms, etc. Note: I am not saying that you can never splurge for them.
Open up a savings account for them – Take them to the bank to open up a savings account. Explain how important it is to put money into their account. Now the trick here and yes you will probably shake your head at me is to let them control the account. Yes when they first have money they will spend it frivolous stuff but what they will learn as they grow if you don’t give them more money, is that they have to save to get what they want. Teach them how their money can grow in the bank.
Talk about the prices of things – Talk to them about how much something cost. Look at what they want to get and how to go about getting something. If they want the newest game boy, take them to the store and see how much it is. Then talk with them about how much they have to say in order to get one. Something on the lines of: “Ok that costs $90; you need to keep your allowance for 6 months to buy that.” Don’t fall back on I’ll just buy it for you. They won’t learn about saving to get something.

So how do you help your child to learn about money?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Top 5 of 2009

Deborah at Just Breathe tagged me with the Top 5's of 2009! That girl loves to keep me busy! Love ya babe! Anywhoo, Deborah is a wonderful blog friend of mine. I never tire of going to read about her puppy, Skye or her family or her life. She is really awesome and I like to read her blog every day. Go on over and say Hello! Make sure you tell her I sent you. Skye...be nice now these are my friends too...no biting!!!

WHAT ARE MY TOP 5 OF 2009? (No particular order cuz that would drive me insane.)

1. Adopting my son, Jason

2. My niece, Gabrielle and my two great nephews births

Aiden's Birthday

Gabrielle's Birthday

No picture for Nikolia..parents are stingy...grrrrrrrrrrrr

3. My trip to Florida (whether it turned out bad or not) I got some me time with my Mom and nothing beats that.

4. My sister's visit in March

5. Our wonderful Christmas with our family.

I've had ups and downs this years.. good times and bad times. I've found so very many new dear friends on blogging land. I started blogging this year. I didn't mention it as one of my top 5 but it would probably have been #6. I've been so blessed to have you here when things were good and bad. You have always changed my life in magical ways that I will always cherish.
Now I must tag five:

Lynn at Midday Escapades

Lee at Hormones, Headaches and Hot flashes

Helene at I'm Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor

Kys at Stir Fry Awesomeness

Yonca at Yonca is Cooking

Have fun ladies. I look forward to seeing what you post.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tuesday's Post It Notes

Once again I am joining SupahMommy with Post Its Tuesday. I absolutely love these. Now if you would like to join us, please do. I actually adore doing these. If you need help learning how to make your very own post-its, please go here.

So here's what is on my mind.

First House cleaning: