More and More crazy life

So, I haven't posted for awhile because I haven't been exactly sure what date I was supposed to post my MotherTalk book review, and I can't find out when it was supposed to be posted. So I have waited awhile to make sure it was live when it needed to be.

Also, things are just crazy. I have some really important news to share, but I am going to make myself a deal that I cannot blog until I finish my online driving course to keep the points off my license. I also cannot blog until I finish the quilt! My poor customer! I just haven't been able to sew like I want to. So, don't expect too many posts for a little while, but I have several posts running around in my head that I'm dying to share, so I'm hoping this will be strong motivation for me to finish my projects. Also, I have to finish a training class my new online tutoring job. Therefore, I really need to figure things out. I'm hoping that I can blog again by the end of the week. Rob will only have to work a half day tomorrow, so I'm really hoping to get a lot of this done. *crossing my fingers* Good luck to me!

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X: A MotherTalk Book Review

I was really excited to open my door and find this book on my doorstep the other day. The Dangerous Days of Daniel X is a book by James Patterson which was written specifically to help young boys ages 10 and older want to read.

After reading this book, I would say that it does it. This book is full of alien chasing and super powers. Daniel's parents die when he's three years old, and he can conjure them up whenever he needs them. One of his best powers is that he can rearrange atoms and another best power is that he can change himself into different shapes. This book made me want to keep turning the pages just to see what happened.

One draw back is that there is a lot of gory stuff (the boy is trying to kill aliens) but the story would probably be appropriate for boys ages 10 and older. I wouldn't try to get anyone younger to read it though.

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X is a fast read with short chapters that will really help a young reader be able to put the book down and still want to pick it up again. Also, this book has a lot of really great action sequences that made me really want to keep going.

Our house, but not for long!!!!

So, yesterday was circled with a big red mark on the calendar. Why? Because it was the end of the 20 days in which the buyers had to back out. They didn't! YIPPEEE!!!!!!!!! They are now stuck with a house that will close on Aug 27 at 4 pm. Yes. I did say that the house will close, and less than two weeks from now, we should have a big chunk of cash deposited in our bank account.

Rob and I are thinking of looking into houses that are going into foreclosure from tax leins, so we can buy a house (without a loan) wherever he ends up for school. Any one have any good ideas on that?

There is a hump day hmm today, and I might get to it later tonight and post it tomorrow, but I'm really not sure that I want to share something that personal on this blog right now. . . Anyway, so I'm really excited about our house selling for sure, and it's one more hurdle we've passed on our way to helping Rob acheive his dreams.

South Georgia Rain

It was a cold and rainy night. . .

I used to think that the above phrase was redundant. If it's a rainy night, of couse it's cold. Enter south Georgia summers. The other day, the temperature was 90 degrees outside, and it had rained pretty hard. Jackie and Ben wanted to go outside and blow bubbles. The sky was still spitting at us, and you could feel the mist, but the hard rain was gone, so I decided that blowing bubbles was fine. The puddles were warm, and the rain that was still coming down, or just appearing out of nowhere and hitting my skin, was probably about 90 degrees as well. When the bubbles would hit the wet cement, they wouldn't pop. I thought, "YAY, I'll go get my camera" and by the time I came back, the kids were done blowing bubbles. They had dumped it all over them, and Jackie and Ben were in desperate need of a bath. So, we had all sorts of fun blowing bubbles in the south Georgia rain, but the bath time was fun, too.

Scarecrow and Mrs. King

I remember when I was growing up, (I couldn't have been more than seven) my family would all get together one night a week and watch Scarecrow and Mrs. King and then right after that, we'd watch Remington Steele. I really loved Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and I've remembered it over and over with all of the crime solving shows I've watched. This show is sort of like a cross between Numb3rs and MacGuyver. (I love both of those shows, too.) Well, I found a place to watch it for free on the internet.

Now, on the whole, I'm not a big fan of AOL, but AOL has full episodes of old TV shows for free! I have been quite happily running Scarecrow episodes while I wait with the kids at bedtime or while I'm working on cutting out my quilt pieces. I am a happy woman!!!

Seminary

OK, so I'm LOVING teaching seminary. It's hard, and I'm going to be more than exhausted by the time fall break rolls around in October, but I'm loving it. My girls are totally awesome! Behavior problems don't exist, and they all have some great questions. We've been working together to find answers in the scriptures. So far, we've only had an introduction to The New Testament and talked about the plan of salvation, but we'll actually get into the New Testament starting Monday. I'm totally excited!

However, I have not yet started my quilt in any fashion except to get the fabric preshrunk, but now that I've finished that, I'm going to start cutting on it. I think I can get it mostly cut out today during Ben's nap and tonight after I clean the kitchen.

Thinking that truly changed my world

This post, although I've had plenty of time to think about it, is not entirely well thought out, and you may have to excuse me.

This post is part of Julie's Hump Day Hmm. She posted the topic early last week, but I had no chance to post on it, and Mr. Linky didn't arrive at her blog until yesterday, so I'm going to post on this anyway. I think it's a great topic, but my post has several facets to the same thinking that changed my mind, my ways, and in some ways, my life.

One thing that changed my thinking was that I'm in charge of my own feelings. Other people cannot and do not have the power to MAKE me mad. They can heckle me all they want, but they can only make me mad if I choose to get mad. They are not in charge of my feelings. I had a tough time in school, and the boys really worked to make me unhappy. About my junior year of high school, I came to the realization that what they think really doesn't matter. It doesn't. They are working to bring me anger, but that's not up to them. Whether or not I get angry really is up to me. Miguel Ruiz's book called The Four Agreements really helped me see this idea. He calls it "Don't Take Anything Personally." What they think and do really is up to them. How I feel about it is what I'm in charge of. Abuse does hurt, but I can't be hurt unless I'm willing to be hurt. That part really is up to me.

Along with that goes the idea of honesty. How often would people's feelings get hurt if we honestly expected people to be honest with us. When we ask our husbands, "Does this dress make me look fat?" if we expected them to answer honestly, would we get our feelings hurt if we knew they were just really being honest, and they didn't want us to walk around looking fat to other people? No. We wouldn't.

This honesty idea does not mean tactless, but it does mean honest. I really need to work to be honest with people. Most of the time, it also means that I need to speak up if something around me is not right. If someone else is getting teased or belittled, it IS my job to say something about it. If those people get their feelings hurt by me saying something truly honest with no intent to hurt someone, that really is up to them.

These realizations have changed my life. The only person for whom I am truly responsible is myself. However, I am responsible for myself. No one else is responsible for me, and that changes how I act and feel every day. If someone says something hurtful, I have to remember that the words are coming from them, it's not really my fault. I need to take responsibility for any wrong action I have enacted, but their feelings are their own. Rob really is in charge of his own feelings. When he or I interact now, I remember that he's in charge of what he eats and how he feels about himself. Whether or not I work say nice things to him and help him is my responsibility, but whether or not he listens to me is his. Now, I really work not to get angry with him.

I don't know if any of these thoughts made sense to anyone else, but these were thoughts that really did change my whole way of thinking and looking at life. My self-esteem really does come from inside. If I base it on anyone else, it's false. I need to base my self-esteem on what truly helps me be happy and I get to choose even that.

More about way too crazy

I really need to take a driving course online. I got my first speeding ticket on the way to an OB appointment somewhere in the first part of July. I already paid the ticket online, but if I take a driving course, then I don't have to have any points assessed on my record. I'm going to do it. I need to do it sometime this week, maybe today.

However, on top of all of that, I got my first order on Ellie Bellie Baby!!!! YAY YAY YAY!!! However, I have a killer quilt top (which I will post on here for everyone's viewing pleasure) to make as rapidly as possible. Also, I have five seminary lessons to teach this week, and I still have children to chase.

Jackie is out of town for a few days with Grandmama and Papa going up to see her cousins. She was WAY excited, and they left yesterday bright and early. I'm interested to see how that goes. I'm so happy for her. She loves her cousins. But with one thing and another, I hope that I get around to posting because this will be an interesting week. I'm hoping to post instructions on this quilt as I make it. It is not to be a bed cap because the customer wanted just a quilt. But it's going to be awesome.