Just call me Mrs. Snow

You want to know what? I am not a fan of winter. Especially when I live in places that actually have a big temperature drop, and the weather completely changes. Like when I see clouds instead of sun 90% of the time. Or when it's cold, wet, rainy/snowy and all around miserable outside.

For the last month, I have felt like I was walking through really thick mud. Barely able to move my legs to make any progression to get out of the darn mud. Which means my house, as well as myself, is falling apart. I thought after going through one of these winters, that I might be more ready for this one. That theory has been proven wrong.

So, along with my daily dosage of Vitamin D3, daily exercise, and sitting in front of my high spectrum light while I read my scriptures, I need to do something more. And last night, I was watching one of my favorite movies from when I was a kid: Pollyanna. I know the whole thing by heart, I had seen it so many times as a kid. Anyway, I started to think. I need the glad game. I am one of those old, crotchety people. All I need to do is have a change in attitude. Yeah, winter really sucks. I have no energy, no motivation, and I have a hard time staying warm and then I really get grumpy. But there ARE things that I can be glad about. Starting this month, and for as long as I need a pick me up (and really, it's cold until May here, so sad) I am going to play the glad game. You can play with me and leave a comment, or you can do it on your own blog. I need to find happiness, to find the good. And really, if you just look, it will be there.

Tomorrow, my first glad post.

Today, I am glad I have a slow cooker.

Your turn..........

Boatloads

Boatloads and boatloads of frustration.

But I'm only going to share one of them here.

Facebook.

Some days I love it. Some days I want to bang my head against the wall.

The things I hate the most??? Politics and religion. There is this one person that 95% of the time all he posts are scriptures from the Book of Mormon. I, being LDS, have no problem with the Book of Mormon. But today, he quoted something about when the voice of the people choose iniquity then they will be destroyed.....oh my freaking gosh. Really? So, just because the Democrats won in your state they are choosing iniquity? I love it. I wonder how Harry Reid feels about that. (To be clear, I fall to the conservative side of things, but I don't believe that either side has it right. If I spent the time to really get into it, I'm sure I'd fall somewhere in the middle. Anyway, back to what I was saying......) I get that we get to choose how we use things like blogs and Facebook. I guess I just don't understand why they think that sharing those sorts of things on Facebook is appropriate. Needless to say, I will be deleting this person shortly. I can't handle it anymore.

Last week, there was even someone that told people WHO to vote for, and which prop or whatever it is they call them around here to vote yes or no or approve. Again, why is Facebook an appropriate place for this?

Last year, someone was very upset about our President talking to the school children and wanted everyone to pull their kids out of school and how she wasn't going to let that man indoctrinate her children. She linked to an article some crazy lady wrote likening him to Hitler and some other crazy fear mongering type of stuff. Really? Seriously.

After reading this sort of stuff, I have made myself my own personal Facebook rules. Here they are in no particular order.
1. Do not comment or post on religious themed articles or status updates
2. Do not comment or post on political themed articles or status updates.
3. Keep everything light, and use Facebook as a way to keep in contact with people.

I think that is pretty basic. I'm working on sticking to it. Sometimes I can't help myself, but I usually am able to hold off.

If there is anyone still reading this, what do you think? Do you have the same frustrations with Facebook? Do you feel like some use it as their own personal soapbox? I think I need to do some deleting of friends before I start to lose my mind.

This is my life

This is my life my friends. The laundry hamper that can't seem to make it to it's home on top of the dryer. The lego container sitting in the middle of the floor. Wii accessories helter skelter, with the drawer where they belong still open. Pillows all in a pile on the couch rather than in their artistically strategic places. A folder that should be in a backpack ready for tomorrow. The ottoman covered in a bunch of stuff.

I could go crazy and make every one's life miserable by having them put it all away right when it's bedtime. But I decided a long time ago that my home would never be a museum. We LIVE here.

So, when you come to my house, remember that we LIVE here. Which means crumbs, shoes, balled up socks, and headbands strewn about. Perhaps someday, when my children are gone, I'll have one of those houses. You know, those spotless, immaculate, beautifully decorated, sweet smelling, vacuum lines still on the carpet, houses. But I'm good with this. Besides, true happiness isn't a perfect home. It's this regular old life stuff.

FYI

Did you know October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month?

I always seem to forget.

Ever since two years ago, October has been a very cloudy month for me. It would be lovely to just be knocked out for the entire thing. But as that is not reality, I just trudge along until November.

At least we're halfway through.

My toe

I think my toenail is going to fall off.

I know, why am I talking about this on my blog? Well, because the other things I want to blog about I won't be very nice or kind, and I could get carried away. So, I'm left with my toenail. And how it feels weird and that I'm pretty sure it will fall off soon.

It started the day I did Challenge Nation. It's an urban scavenger hunt, and you usually do it in teams. I wore shoes that from the first day I wore them have never ever hurt my feet. But yet that day, when I walked miles and miles (mostly because the bus schedules were way off, and we kept missing the buses that we needed), it had to do something to my left big toe.

What are the positives? Well, at least it's fall/winter time here already. And even though I wear them until I just can't anymore because it is way too cold, there isn't too much time left for me to wear my beloved flip flops. So, other than maybe wearing open toed shoes on Sunday's to church, no one will see my big toe.

I'll keep you updated. But I promise no pictures. Feet are just ugly. I'll save my thoughts on feet for another day. Cause I need to go to sleep at some point.

I want

My friend Emily did an 'I want' list. And she invited people to copy her and do their own.
Here is mine:

I WANT
real Mexican food
to live where the sun shines almost every day
to stop eating late
To be organized
home made cookies every day
my right ear to pop
to live in France
to let it all go
a few new friends
my potted herbs to last the winter
Superhero to have more long sleeved shirts

There is my list. Do you have one?

My food quandry

I have really loved having my husband home. Although having him gone for a year, then having 45 days off was a little too big of a switch, it has mostly been really good. I was worried about the reintegration of him and us, but it has been much smoother than I thought it would be.

But let me tell you what has been the hardest.

Making dinner.

When you have two small kids to cook for, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, quesedillia's, and pretty much anything having to do with cheese is a good go-to. It wasn't like that every night, and we did eat lots of vegetables. But now that my husband is home, those things don't work anymore. Well, just not as much. We go through more food. My husband has changed his diet since he left, and won't eat certain foods anymore. Sigh. Which is frustrating, because I LOVE baked potatoes. LOVE. And he doesn't eat them much these days. He also doesn't eat much that has sugar in it. And doesn't eat a lot of bread. And no pasta.

That pretty much minimizes my options.

Sometimes I say 'screw it' and make what I want to make and he will just deal with it. Most of the time, I do my best to make things that all of us can eat. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. We've had a lot of salads. Lots of fish, baked sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, and recently, we tried brussel sprouts again.

I'm working on it. I try to keep things that we all like stocked up. Tonight I made chicken vegetable soup. And I'm sure he didn't eat most of the potatoes in his bowl. But that is fine with me.

For the first time, I just might have to start planning my meals a week at a time. I'll let you know how it goes. (and if you have some good idea's, please leave me a comment. i need help!)