Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Original Scrapbox

Amazing giveaway!!!! You can enter to win this Workbox

 from The Original Scrapbox company.
There are a total of 10 (yes TEN) blogs that are participating. 

This workbox (valued at $1295.00) is the Grand Prize,
but ten winners will get their choice of a 
ScrapMaBob or a Ribbon Box.
Here are the blogs:

What an amazing chance to get organized!
If you are interested in just purchasing from 

The Original Scrapbox 
make sure you use the promo code:100Writes 
it will save you $100 off your shipping!
Take a look at the blogs and enter away... and get organized! 

One thing I feel that helps put me in a better mood 
is organizing my home and finding a place for everything. 
Because when something doesn't have a place to go
it ends up causing clutter!

Monday, September 28, 2009

No Painting

I saw a clip from Rachael Ray's show today and she had Libby Landon on and she was giving tips on how to decorate walls when you aren't allowed to paintor leaveany permanent damage. If we weren't moving at the end of the year I'd be SO excited to try out some of these! One of the ideas that I liked was to draw on the wall with chalk, it comes off with Magic Eraser or with wipes. The other idea that I REALLY liked was to mix cornstarch and water, dip cotton fabric inside the mix and put the fabric on the wall it's like wall paper, but it comes off without damaging the paint. And if it ever starts to come off you can just dab some more water cornstarch mix on there and put it back on! If we rent again for awhile I know how I'll be decorating!!!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Need a Pick me UP????


This is a blog that one of my friend's from my college days. I have really enjoyed the messages that she posts. She is absolutely adorable and as beautiful as can be inside and out!!!
The other day I was feeling like I should be doing for our family, both spiritually and financially. I read the post Q&A: Stay At Home Mom, it was just along the lines of some feelings I had been having. I decided to read through some of the comments one of which referred to a talk given by President Gordon B. Hinckley, from the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints. If you want to read the whole thing click here. I just wanted to touch on part of it, that part which touched my heart, but there may be another part that will touch your heart so feel free to take the time to read the whole thing.
"Some years ago President Benson delivered a message to the women of the Church. He encouraged them to leave their employment and give their individual time to their children. I sustain the position which he took.
Nevertheless, I recognize, as he recognized, that there are some women (it has become very many in fact) who have to work to provide for the needs of their families. To you I say, do the very best you can. I hope that if you are employed full-time you are doing it to ensure that basic needs are met and not simply to indulge a taste for an elaborate home, fancy cars, and other luxuries. The greatest job that any mother will ever do will be in nurturing, teaching, lifting, encouraging, and rearing her children in righteousness and truth. None other can adequately take her place.
It is well-nigh impossible to be a full-time homemaker and a full-time employee. I know how some of you struggle with decisions concerning this matter. I repeat, do the very best you can. You know your circumstances, and I know that you are deeply concerned for the welfare of your children....
To the mothers of this Church, every mother who is here today, I want to say that as the years pass, you will become increasingly grateful for that which you did in molding the lives of your children in the direction of righteousness and goodness, integrity and faith. That is most likely to happen if you can spend adequate time with them.
For you who are single parents, I say that many hands stand ready to help you. The Lord is not unmindful of you. Neither is His Church.
May He bless you, my beloved sisters who find yourselves in the situation of single parenthood. May you have health, strength, vitality to carry the heavy burden that is yours. May you have loving friends and associates to bear you up in your times of trial. You know the power of prayer as perhaps few others do. Many of you spend much time on your knees speaking with your Father in Heaven, with tears running down your cheeks. Please know that we also pray for you."
I had been having the feeling that I wasn't doing enough (which I think is common), yet to have the reminder that what I am doing is of the utmost importance, the full-time job of being a mom. My boys mean the world to me, but just like any mom there are some days when I get overwhelmed with all my responsibilities. Like the days where T is running through the house like a tornado displacing everything he can get his hands on and my little B is crying and spitting up and I'm not sure what else to do to try to help him... and then I consider pulling my hair out because that would at least be something I would have control over! And yet when T and B give me those angelic little smiles I melt and the world seems right again. I am so grateful to have a husband who works so hard to try to make it so I can stay at home with these sweet boys.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Giveaways

One of my favorite types of blogs to find are the ones that do giveaways... here are a few that I watch.  Sometimes I just like being able to see the REALLY cute things they have, but sometimes I am really excited about their really cool giveaways!


Give Away Today, daily giveaways (Monday-Friday)

Fabulous Fun Finds, daily giveaways (Monday- Friday)

San Diego Bargain Mama, occasional giveaways but great resource for deals or discounts to stores, attractions, and events in the San Diego area

Riding with No Hands, occasional giveaways

Seventh Smith, Giveaways on Fridays

Another place I go to for giveaways is radio stations... many radio stations are starting to do things where you can earn points just for clicking on websites and then you can either bid on items or get entered in a raffle. Check out your local radio stations to see what they do. Here are two of my favorites, but there are more in San Diego, if you want to know of them let me know and I'll point you in their direction.

Star 94.1

New Country 95.7

Leave a comment with a website or blog that you frequent for good deals or giveaways!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Your Happiness Box

Today I went to a WONDERFUL seminar, presented by a Psychologist from LDS Family Services. Even if you are not religious this is a great bit of advice for relationships. I wanted to share some of what she said with all of you because it really hit home for me. 
Imagine that happiness is symbolized by a box, she did a demonstration with a woman and gave her a tissue box to hold. Now you probably worry about your spouse's happiness, so now you have another box to hold on to. If you have children or grandchildren, you now have their boxes. If you have siblings, you have boxes for them. Then if your parents are alive you have boxes for them... and if you have friends that you worry about their happiness you now have boxes that you are holding for them! By the time she was done listing off people this other woman may have in her life that she worries about their happiness she had a HUGE stack of tissue boxes that she was holding! 
She does this activity with clients she sees and will then tell them they have to carry all these boxes around with them everywhere for the next week. If you're cooking dinner, or doing dishes they have to be on your back, like a back pack, if you're in the shower you have to put them in a bag and take them with you, when you drive somewhere you have to have them all on your lap. Now can you imagine trying to drive around with a bunch of tissue boxes stacked up to your chin? So, how do we handle our happiness box and the happiness boxes of others to have good relationships?
Well, just so you know where this woman was coming from she lost her father in a car accident when she was 12, had 5 siblings. Her mom was pregnant and lost the child and was critically injured in the accident (and didn't even know her husband was dead until awhile later, she didn't even get to go to her husband's funeral). Her father's siblings were also in the car and later her mom married a brother-in-law whose wife was killed in the accident. Talk about crazy family dynamics! This amazing woman had cousins who then became her step siblings and then they shared a half sibling, and on top of that her uncle became her step-father! 
Later on this amazing woman got married (I think she said she was 23 at that time), at this point she said that when she got married she gave her husband her happiness box to carry, and he did, happily! She would say, "I think I'd be happier if you made more money," and he would just say, "okay, I can work on that." She had a husband that would do anything for her happiness. A few months after getting married her husband's doctor diagnosed him with Brain Cancer, however told her that it would be best not to tell him because he only had a few months to live and since he was so young (I think 25) it would be too hard for him to handle. So, she didn't and knew this secret for a few years before he died. Before he passed away they had a daughter together. After he passed away she felt as thou her happiness box fell to the ground and when this happens that's when a person starts feeling depressed. She realized that all her happiness was dependent on her husband. As a widow she went to live with her mom whose second husband had since passed away (as she put it, her mom was "an expert widow"). She began to pick up her happiness box and find satisfaction in her own accomplishments.
Then she decided to start dating again. When she did she said that the first guy she started dating she tried to hand him her happiness box to hold, but then he did what her husband never had done, he handed her his box! If he was expected to keep her happy, then she was expected to keep him happy! This was so different from what she had known and eventually her relationship with that guy ended and she met another guy who was younger and more handsome, but he did the same thing when she tried to give him her box! That relationship eventually ended as well and she felt her box drop.
She thought she was doing everything right, why wasn't God giving her the blessings she deserved? Why wouldn't God hold her box of happiness since she was doing everything she should! Well, she eventually had the idea that God does things out of love not out of control, and that is what we should do too. She was doing the "right" things expecting to get things in return (this would be control) and when we do this our happiness box can easily drop. So, she realized that God won't carry our happiness box for us, just like we shouldn't carry anyone else's happiness box. God will however support us through love and help us carry our happiness box! This is how we should go about in our relationships, we too should help others with carrying their boxes, through acts of love. We do have to be careful in the process of helping support others happiness boxes make sure they don't just hand us the whole thing! Sometimes people need to go through the challenge they are facing to help them grow. However this doesn't mean that we should just leave everyone to just deal on their own, we just need to be careful not to take on too much of the responsibility. At the same time we should not be giving our box of happiness to someone else and expect them to do things to make us happy! As parents the best thing we can do is make sure our children know we love and support them, but teach them how to be responsible for their own happiness!

I hope my thoughts from all of this make sense and can help someone, sorry if it's not very clear. Please feel free to leave your thoughts or comments! I'd love to hear what you have to say! In honor of this seminar and being responsible for our own happiness I found this great 6 day activity to create your own happiness box to help you reflect on the positive things in your life. Click here if you're interested in making your own happiness box!