10 on 10 for March

 10 on 10.....one photo every hour on the 10th day of the month for 10 consecutive hours....So let's get started!

7am: This morning-the beginning of my 10 on 10. It was so nice. The hubs left for work around 6:30 and the boys decided to sleep in. I was loving every minute of it. I sat at my computer drinking my coffee. I prefer it with one packet of Stevia and a dash of coconut milk. I of course was checking out my favorite site, Pinterest.

8am: I had just checked out the forecast for the day! Looks like a beautiful day. I'm sure my plants would love to spend the day outside. The plant in the front is our pineapple plant. It's so hard to believe that this once was cut from a simple pineapple that we bought from the store. Look how HUGE it is! It's around 18 months old now.

9am: Take a look at these blueberry blooms. I am so excited! Our two bushes did great last year and it looks like we're going to have another stellar year.

10am. I'm late! We're supposed to be at a birthday party in exactly about.....now! I first had ZERO gas in my truck...What's new. So I had to stop and fill up. Then I managed to get us lost. You would think after 4 years of living in the same house I would be familiar with our downtown area. As you can see, Mr. Keagan Lorax was not too happy at all!

11am: Eastonasauras! We made it to the party and it was too cute! Little man was super shy with paci in hand until the end of the party...Go figure. When it was time to go all he wanted to do was spit that paci out and play with all the fossils, check out the animals, and look at the scientific experiments.

12-noon....I'm off to pick up fencing. This is the life of a single mom (while the husbands at work) on a Saturday. I'm not going to lie-Juggling two tired kids and picking up 25 slabs of picket fencing isn't always fun. I bribe them by buying Doritos and Cheetos to get through the shopping trip.

1pm....I get home and you don't think I relax do you?? That's a joke. I finish up the Easter mantel. I think it turned out really cute with the little banner I hung. I'm linking this up at Fox Hollow Cottage's Spring Mantel Linky Party.

2pm: The boys are WIDE open! Luckily it's a beautiful day and I drag out the jump house. They can literally play on this thing for hours. If I ever questioned the money when I bought it....Never again.

3pm: The fence is up! At this point I'm starting to get a little tired. For the next hour I finish up the fence with a little help from my awesome helper, K....and then I finish up three loads of laundry, sweep and mop the entire house and clean both bathrooms. Oh the life of a wife and mommy. It's exhausting.

4pm: And I'm done!! You can see the boys still playing on the bounce house. I'm tired and just got the phone call that Daddy is on his way home! YAY!! Our days are nonstop...today was no exception. I'll be tired and ready to lie in bed and read by 8:30 or 9:00 but can you blame me? These boys keep me wide open and when Aaron is working it's double time for this mommy!

It's been a great day and how fun to have a 10 on 10 on a weekend! At least you won't see me sitting at my desk for 8 hours of the day.

It's a Friday Phone Dump!!!

Just in case it's not obvious for the week....I am loving my new phone! I love love to take pictures on it! It's also been a pretty good week for pictures anyways. The weather has been wonderful. Spring is without a doubt on it's way. The week has been full of working in the garden, going for long walks with the dogs, and finding really fresh fruit at the market. Another really great event that happened was K was elected as the Kid of Character in his class for trustworthiness. Way to go Mr. K-man! If there was ever a wonderful trait to have, trustworthiness would be it!
Our new puppy, Bear, is still adjusting to the life of potty training but he is doing so well otherwise! He's a sweet boy and gets along so well with Boodro and the boys. At this point he isn't one for walks but prefers to ride in the back of the stroller. Sooooo cute but not sure how that will be manageable once he gets full grown.
I got another kick start on my working out. I went to the gym every day this week and feel great! I have less than a month before our first camping trip of the season (yay!) and must get rid of some of this winter weight before then! I guess that's a wrap for week 10. I can't believe we're already 11 weeks into 2012. Where is it going!?!

I am also ashamed to admit that I TOTALLY forgot we were going to donate cans to a food drive/shelter this week. That's how busy life gets yet that is never an excuse! I know it's never to late to donate and that is still a very important plan of mine. Maybe we'll go pick them up this weekend!

Sunday

Today has been a bit of an odd day. I can go years without hearing an artist. Michael Jackson was a perfect example. I loved him....but I didn't always listen to him. When he passed, I cried. Whitney Houston. I grew up with her! A perfect memory from my childhood was riding down the road with my mom and Whitney coming on. I was singing away as I do with EVERY song and she was making fun of me at how terrible I actually sounded. Even though it has been years since I have listened to her music, I can still sing every word to her songs and I still feel an empty space with her gone. I tried to keep a happy face today because lets face it....I really don't know her. What it boils down to is, a very important era for me is gone and as hard as I try, I still accept death with as much understanding as a newborn does to their new world.

Regardless though, Sundays are almost always good days. Exploring, relaxing, preparing....just good.

I want this.....

and this....I do love pears.

Lil' dude got a hair cut....It's only been a year. Wow, where did the time go??? I got kind of used to my little longed hair hippie.

Oh and it was cold outside...Oh so cold! That didn't stop us. It never does. We spent three hours working in our garden to prepare it for spring and then played by the fire.

Oh, this is what I love about Sundays....Goodnight!

2011-The Year of Internal Happiness

2011 has come and gone. 756 status updates on Facebook. Above are a sample of 28 random status' that Facebook threw together. After this post that will bring me to 113 blog post for the year and this will wrap her up. Time to bring 2011 to an end. Send this year to the the presses and print yet another great year into a book for great memories down the road. When I started this blog in 2010 I never thought I would stick with it long enough to create a book for my children to have one day. Here we are on the 2nd annual print and I am going strong. Our family loves pulling out the 2010 book and looking at old memories and I look forward to printing 2011's and continuing strong into 2012. I also look forward to posting different projects that I can't wait to dive into as I explore more into my creative side and to see what surprises the new year will bring. Goodbye 2011....You have been better than great! I've given you the title of, "The year of internal happiness." Let's now see what 2012 has got to offer!

Take a stand against cancer!

So much is already going on this fall! It has been busy busy! Just today I've got apple butter in the crock pot simmering, wreaths a'wrappin, the kids finger painting some canvas' to hang on my wall, frames being painted by myself and all the ideas swirling in my head as how I want to transform my little computer corner. I've dedicated this year to being a homemade Christmas. Not for the kiddos but for friends and family. That pledge has kept me quite busy, to say the least.

The point of this whole post though was to help take my stand against cancer. Over at Brassy Apple Megan is collecting shoe photos that will all be donated to help raise funds for research that will go to standup2cancer.org. For those of you who know me then you know that this is a passion of mine. Anything I can do to aid in the research of cancer, I'm in....And what more perfect of a shot than my little boy sportin' Momma's favorite shoes. :)
 

We love Summer!!

Sometime there is no time to edit a photo! It's far to good for that anyways. We've had such a great time in the 100 degree weather...just hanging out with family! I love it!!

Going...Going....Gone...

To my dear sweet boys,
I've been spending the past few days thinking back on our summer....The fun and exciting camping trips we've been on, the lazy days at the house, the chaos of getting all of us up and out the door in time to get Mommy & Daddy to work. I've watched you both grow so much.
E, you are just starting to become your own individual. You love to sit back and play with cars and trucks all by yourself yet you want to do everything with your older brother and your goal appears to be just like him. You are our cuddlier and in the mornings you'll take turns sitting with each of us, almost as if not to hurt any one's feelings. You were born to be outdoors and cry when we come inside. You've become quite the kisser and love to give good morning, good afternoon, good night, and all day kisses. I love to watch your little wheels turning and think you are growing up to be quite the ladies man...
K, you are getting to be one big boy! You have gone from being a little boy in my mind to a kid that is getting ready to start school! You love and want to be just like your Daddy. Your excitement for camping and trucks is almost too much for you to handle. I love watching you play by yourself when you think I'm not watching. The conversations that your cars and trucks have with each other are just so cute and grown up in their own innocent way. You have a sweet sweet soul and can't stand to hurt any one's feelings or to get in trouble. When you think you've done wrong you stick yourself in to time out and it always pulls at my heartstrings. You will be having a visitor, the tooth fairy, come by real soon and we can't wait!!
Both of you have made this the best summer ever for me! I love you both and can't wait to see what the fall has in store for us.
xoxo,
Mom

30 day Photo Challenge~ Day 15

LIGHTS....CAMERA....ACTION...

Not much action goes on in my life on a work day. I wake up at 5am, head to work, sit at a desk for 8-9 hours, come home, make dinner, get the kids ready for bed, get myself ready for bed, wake up and do it all over again.

I was pondering over and over again what action I may be able to capture and all I came up with was the action going on at the gym. While I should have been working out-instead I was snapping a picture of the machine as I do as many crunches as I can while lifting 20lbs at the same time. I wonder who saw me & hope that no one did. I'm sure they would be thinking, "What kind of vain person takes a picture while in the gym....?" At least it was with my phone/"Ipod" so maybe it wasn't quite so obvious. :)

Until You Walk a Mile in Their Shoes....

I had the most eye opening, humbling experience this morning. At times we get so caught up in our own little worlds that it's easy to forget what others are going through. Sometimes I fuss, worry, complain about my life, my struggle with money, or the fact that it seems like we're in a constant battle with our older home....but do I have a place to call home-yes. Do we have the money to pay our bills and to put food on the table-yes. Do both my husband and I wake up every morning and have jobs to go to-yes.
Here we are excited and wishing for this snow storm to come! Possible 10 inches...wow! Never once thinking about who may be effected by the storm because they don't have a home.
We walked into the store this morning to stock up on groceries and grab a couple of things that we need and the first thing I spotted was a man bundled in ragged clothing sitting in the cafe area. I knew he looked homeless and was probably sitting there trying to get out of the bone chilling wind. As we were roaming the store I kept glancing over there to see if by chance he had gotten up and left...but he hadn't. That's when I decided I couldn't just glance over and feel bad but do nothing. I grabbed a foot long sub, a loaf of bread, a bag of oranges, and some chips. I paid for this food separately and then decided to walk over there. I was a little nervous. What if he wasn't homeless and I totally offend someone who is just taking a break. I walk up to him and start to hand him the bag, saying hello and he looks confused. I asked if he'd like lunch and he begins to cry telling me he hasn't eaten in 3 days. I asked him if he had a place to go for the snow and he just shook his head. I don't normally carry cash on me but it just so happened I had a little. I don't know why he is homeless...That's not for me to judge. I dug in my purse and handed him a little bit of money and told him to go find somewhere and keep himself warm. Take care of you!! And he just cried saying, "God Bless You."
I walked away in tears wishing I could do more.
What's the point of this story?? Just when you think you have it bad. That you work for nothing and that life is a constant battle trying to work against you...Think of others. Someone out there has it much worse than you do. Walk a mile in their shoes before you judge them.

My Year in Status'

I saw this on another blogger 's page and thought it was brilliant to add to the blog. We had quite a busy year and when my boys grow up and read these status' I think it'll be so fun to see what their mommy was thinking for the year. Not to mention....I have no doubt I'll enjoy reading them again one day too.

Out with the old....In with the new.

Out with the old…for 2010 and in with the new for 2011. I got this ornament for Christmas and not only do I love it for what it is….A camera with my blog so crookedly written on it. Perfect! It gives it such character but it was also a perfect ending to such a great year and wonderful blog! I’ve enjoyed writing on this blog and have gotten to know some really great people. I’m preparing to print this one out into my first book for 2010, a nice memento to give the boys when they get a little older. With that being said though, I’ve also decided to change blogs. I’ve decided to try a different blog host and I’ve also decided to remove names just for safety reasons and to use little nicknames for my boys and the rest of us.
This new blog is certainly a work in progress. http://ourbeatenpath.blogspot.com/ I’m not wild about the header…I’m not sure how to use blogger and I’m going to miss all my old post. But just as I made this one my own in time I have no doubt that Our Beaten Path will become a great new home. No content is changing-I’ll still enjoying posting pictures, stories, and thoughts…It’s just the name.
Hopefully I’ll begin my new journey if not today then tomorrow to start the new year!
Happy New Year Everyone!!! Don’t forget to follow me on over to “Our Beaten Path!!”