Fun Friday

Yes, I know that it is actually Saturday when I am posting this, but I do have an excuse, it might not be a good one, but it's an excuse. We were so busy having fun yesterday that I totally forgot to sit down and blog.

So Fun Friday! We didn't have anything planned so much as just had things happen. In the afternoon we had a bunch of friends over for the girls to play with so that at one point we had 8 kids running around in the back yard. We all took a break for dinner then had another group of people come hang out afterwards. It is so nice just to have informal gatherings of people who like being around each other.

Think Ahead Thursday

I decided to do more dreaming than planning for todays challenge. If I were taking a vacation to anywhere in the world where would it be? Wow, that is actually much harder than it sounds initially. There are so many places that I want to visit in my life. I want to go back to England and live there and travel until I have seen every single castle and ruin, then I will extend my travels to Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. I want to see each and every state in the United States. I want to visit Canada and Mexico. Asia, so many places to visit, I would love to spend time in China, Japan, Korea, India. Australia that would be awesome, but I think I would choose New Zealand first. My choices are different if I include my children than if I don't. So what is my number one choice?

I want to take a cruise. I want to take a trip where I can visit more than one city at a time, and when I am done touristing I can have amazing food, spas, activities and shopping. I really want to take a cruise.

I now dub thee, Diva Days of the Week.

I have decided that I want to have some sort of fun challenge in place for each day of the week, both for me and for you. I think I will also do weekly and monthly challenges, but let's just start out with the small things that we can do one day at a time. So here's the list.

Sunday - Spiritual Sunday, spend some time this day nurturing your spiritual side. While I hope that you will go to a church and experience God's amazing love for you, I understand if that isn't your personal belief system, so do what centers you. (also if you happen to celebrate on a different day, Saturday for example, please just switch the days)

Monday - Make-up Monday, if you are like me there are always chores that get purposefully ignored over the weekend. Take a few minutes to get them back into order.

Tuesday - Take a picture Tuesday, find something that makes you smile or makes you think to take a picture of today. A child, a flower, your sink that's clean for the first time in 3 weeks. Whatever you are thinking about today share it in picture form.

Wednesday - Write it out Wednesday, It seems like in the world of e-mail, text, Facebook, and twitter we rarely send cards or letters any more. Take the time on Wednesday to write a real note or letter to someone. Give your friends and family a happy surprise in their mailbox to go with all of the bills and junk.

Thursday - Think Ahead Thursday, use today to dream and plan. Sometimes we all get so absorbed in the now of it all that we forget to take time to plan and dream. They can be little or big, immediate or long term. They don't have to be practical all of the time, just allow yourself to dream.

Friday - Fun Friday! Do something fun for you, your family or your friends today. Go fly a kite, play soccer or Frisbee, have a gourmet meal or fun cocktail party. Do something to help you unwind after a long week and just have fun!

Saturday - Sharing Saturday, this one is a little vague, but I feel like it has a lot of potential. Share something today, your time, your talents, your stuff. Take donations to Salvation Army, go serve in a soup kitchen, help your neighbor weed their yard, give a freezer meal to a friend who needs a little extra help.

I know that you might not get to all of these each week, but try. I will be trying and sharing each one with you as I do them, and please share with me what you do.

~DD

What to write about.... Hmmmm.....

I am at a loss right now. You see it's that time of night when my routine kicks in. Everyone in my house is in bed, it's quiet, it's my alone time. So I usually pour myself a glass of wine, or pull out some sort of snack and play some games on FB. It's how I unwind. So now I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs trying to figure out what to do with my time. The way I see it I had a few options. I could

a) clean, do some laundry, something on that line. But I quickly threw that idea out the window... I do enough cleaning and laundry during the day I don't think it would be relaxing.

b) watch some of the old tele. Well, I am doing that, I'm watching American Idol right now. But I have never been able to just watch tv, I feel unproductive and bored (because we all know that games are productive.

c) work on some crafts. Before I became an addict I would spend all of my down time making things, doing crochet, cross-stitch, and making my shirts. I loved doing all of this, but I don't have anything going right now, and I am not sure what I want to start.

d) Resume my before bed bible study, meditation and prayer time. This is the one I should be doing. After all the whole point of this experiment is to improve my relationships with my family and with God.

So what did I choose to do? Blog out the list of things that I should be doing so that I would see that my only option is the final one. So now that I have dragged my rambling out as long as I can I will take myself off the computer and the internet and sit in a quiet place to have some quiet reflective time. Hopefully the change from internet games to prayer and meditation as a calming and centering method will have amazing results.

~DD

It's Lent

So what are you giving up? Are you giving something up? Some years I do and some years I don't, it depends on where I feel like I am in that time. This year I am giving something up, actually I am giving three somethings up. Why? Because I feel like I have let these things get in the way of my relationships with God, my family and friends. Each and every one of them is an addiction of sorts something that I feel compelled to do at the cost of other things. So I am finished for the season, and we will see if I pick them up again.

I am not sharing all three of my addictions for personal reasons, but I will share one. I am giving up ALL of my games on facebook. For some people this might not be a big thing but for me it is. I have no idea how many hours a day/week I spend playing these games, and honestly I am scared to find out. I am not so bad that I could become one of those parents who ignores their dying child to play games, but I am guilty of telling them to wait when they ask for something so that I can finish a game.

I had debated giving up facebook entirely, but because of my lifestyle it is the most convenient way to keep in touch with my friends that are scattered all over the world, so I will keep it running for now.

Now time for me to get off the computer and spend some time with my wonderful kiddos.

Where have all the friends gone?

This is something that has been on my mind for quite a while. I see women both in person and my Internet friends (who are just as close and precious to me) who feel like they don't have a friend to lean on. This hurts my heart so much. When we were growing up most girls had their "BFF" the person who they told everything to, who talked with them, laughed with them and cried with them. But as we age it seems like that type of trusting caring relationship slowly gives way to another much more hurtful type of friendship. Once we cross the threshold into adulthood it seems like there is so much competition, jealousy and anger involved that we don't have relationships with our friends we have superficial and passing acquaintances.

Women seem to be locked in some eternal competition with those around them, there isn't room for caring and understanding with all of the judgement and gossip. Why would you want to tell someone your innermost thoughts and fears, how you "really" feel beyond the basic answer of "fine" if you can't trust them not to judge you? It is so sad to me.

I am in no way innocent of any of this. As much as I want to say that I am a wonderful and supportive person to everyone that I meet I know that it isn't true. I look at people and their choices and wonder why in the world would they do that? I struggle with not giving other people a chance. I try not to, but it happens.

The result of this judgement is so sad to me, women feel alone, overwhelmed, and imperfect all the time. So they pretend that everything is ok, they hide all of the hurts, frustrations, sadness, and questions. They hold things inside until they all get bigger and worse and until they feel like there is no one to turn to and no one who will ever understand.

I am blessed to have some women who I can call my true friends. I can tell them anything and they are always helpful and supportive no matter how badly I feel like I have messed things up. It is my dream that every woman could break the cycle of judgement and competition and make true friends who are there for them no matter what.

Yummy Goodness.

One of my neighbors brought these over for our Super Bowl party last weekend and DH loved them SO much that he hasn't stopped talking about them since. My neighbor hadn't named them when she brought them over and called them cheesy, crunchy, jalapenoy, bacony goodness. It's a little long as far as names go, so she has since renamed them Jap Stacks. They are wonderful. The biggest problem is that you will eat them faster than you can make them.

Jap Stacks.

24 Townhouse Toppers
6-12 slices bacon
24 slices pickled Jalapeno
1/2 c Shredded Parmasean cheese ( I bought bagged)

Pre-heat your oven to 375.

Take your bacon and cut it in half lengthwise. The bacon I used was wide enough that I also cut it in half width wise as well, if you bacon isn't wide just use it like it comes.

Take one cracker and fill the indentation with a small amount of cheese, then cut one slice of jalapeno in half and lay it on the cheese. Wrap the whole cracker in bacon with the seam at the bottom and place on a cookie sheet.

Once the sheet is full bake for 25 min or until the bacon is cooked and crispy. Enjoy!