Charades and Circus Acts

It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here. 


An impromptu game of charades suddenly broke out in my living room last night. I'm not exactly sure how it happened. One minute my daughter was jumping around making silly faces, and the next minute my son and I were somehow wrapped up in guessing what she was pretending to be. Then before I knew it, I was roped in to performing too.

The game was awesomely hilarious, and we all laughed more than we had in a long time. Plus, I learned a couple of very important things. 1) I do a pretty good squirrel impression. And 2) my kids have a very special talent for communicating with each other. I was blown away by how easily they could guess each other's words from just the slightest movement or subtlest expression. It was really cool to watch.

After the living room charades we moved into the play room, which had apparently been transformed into a circus tent. I was given a kazoo and told that I was to be the ringmaster, and the kids took turns entertaining us with their acts. My son, who, it turns out, is becoming quite the master of slapstick comedy, made an excellent clown. My daughter followed his lead, and again much hilarity ensued.

School will be starting later this week, so of course we've been trying to soak up all of the family time we can. Sure, we're looking forward to school. And part of me is going to enjoy having a quiet house for a little while every day. (What stay-at-home mom doesn't look forward to that?) But at the same time, I sure am going to miss these awesome little people.


Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and let's all have a great week!

And if you're a blogger and would like to get in on the LML fun, feel free to grab the code and join the blog hop! Your post doesn't specifically have to use the "LML" label (although you're welcome to use it if you'd like, and the graphic that goes along with it.) If you have any kind of happy, positive Monday message that you'd like to share you're welcome to join. The more happy vibes, the better the Monday!

Sharing Life's Little Joys

It's no secret that I'm easily amused, or that the littlest things in life have been known to bring me immense joy. When something new or unusual happens, I see it as a special treat, and choose to let it make me happy. It just makes life more fun.

And one of the best things about being a parent is that not only do I get to let these little experiences bring me joy, but I also have these two awesome little people to share it with. Because getting to watch a child experience something new is, for me, one of life's greatest gifts.

So this morning as I cracked the eggs for breakfast, I came across one with a double yolk. This isn't unheard of, obviously, but it's not something that happens every day, so it made me smile. I realized that I didn't know if the kids had ever seen that before, and figured that if they had it'd probably been a while and they may not remember it, so I called them in the kitchen.

When they came in I was treated to a delighted "Awwww!" and an "It's so adorable!" That, of course, made me smile again. I mean, sure, finding a double yolk really isn't that big of a big deal. Just like so many other things that happen to us every day. But why not let those little things make us happy anyway?

And That's When You Know How Terrible You Look

It's been a rough few days, with a chronic pain flair-up really getting me down. So today, when I had to go grocery shopping because I couldn't put it off any longer, wasn't easy. But shopping is a necessary evil, so I forced myself to deal with it.

I was able to get my shopping done (slowly, and gingerly, because that was all I could manage.) But when I got to the check-out line I realized just how exhausted the whole thing had made me. I stood waiting for the cashier to finish, just trying to stay on my feet.

I didn't realize it consciously at the time, but my eyes were only about half open, and I probably looked a little like I would topple over at any second. The cashier actually stopped halfway through asking me if I needed any stamps or ice to ask me if I was okay.

Her concerned expression startled me back into reality, which made me laugh (because sometimes that's all you can do.) I told her I thought that I was about to fall asleep there in her line, which made her laugh (because, as she said, "nobody's ever done that before!")

It was one of those little moments that you have now and then, when you just stand there laughing at nothing in particular with a total stranger, and it manages to brighten your day a little bit. And, seriously... thank goodness for those little moments!

Lazy Summer Days

It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here. 


It's a late one today, friends, and a short one. Mostly because I haven't been home much in the past couple of days, and I'm super-exhausted. My sister and her husband came into town, so we were lucky enough to get to meet them for dinner and a nice long visit last night, and spend almost all of today with them. And, as it usually should, family time took priority over everything else.

Because yesterday was National Ice Cream Day (and because that's as good of an excuse as any) we decided to go for ice cream after dinner. The night was surprisingly mild, so we sat outside enjoying the ice cream and the company. The kids were happy to watch the spray of the nearby fountain (and splash in the resulting puddles) so the rest of us were able to relax and chat, and enjoy watching them play.

Today we spent a very long and exhausting (but incredibly fun) day at the resort where my sis was staying. The adults once again got to relax and chat, and the kids got to go nuts enjoying the pool. It was a fantastic way to spend one of our last days of summer vacation.


Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and let's all have a great week!

And if you're a blogger and would like to get in on the LML fun, feel free to grab the code and join the blog hop! Your post doesn't specifically have to use the "LML" label (although you're welcome to use it if you'd like, and the graphic that goes along with it.) If you have any kind of happy, positive Monday message that you'd like to share you're welcome to join. The more happy vibes, the better the Monday!

Heart Melting Moments

Being a parent is never easy. But every now and then you have one of those moments that make it all worthwhile.

I was having a really difficult day yesterday. The pain was almost unbearable, and the headache was just as bad. I was doing my best to get on with my day and not let it stop me, but apparently it was fairly obvious what a hard time I was having.

At one point my son came over to me and said "Mommy, I have a great idea! I'll give you all of the money in my piggy bank, and you can use it to take a vacation. You can go where you can just relax and not have to do any work, so that you can feel better."

All I could do was thank him, and tell him how much I appreciated the thought. He didn't understand why I had started to cry.

Possibly the Silliest Spaghetti Ever

There are things that you see floating around on the Internet that (for some reason) you think to yourself, "Hey - that looks like fun. I think I'll try it!" This was one of those things. It was silly, but it turned out to be a fun way to spend an evening.

Start by cutting up some uncooked hot dogs. Then take your uncooked spaghetti noodles and poke them through the hot dog slices.

It will look something like this.

When you've got them all prepped, just cook the noodles as you normally would.

And it comes out looking something like this.

Add your sauce (and whatever else you normally add) and there you have it.

I'm pretty sure this face says it all.

Why did we do this again? Oh yeah. It was funny. And in the end, we decided that it tasted pretty good too.

How to Not Give Good Customer Service

My husband and I took the kids out this evening for some family fun at one of the community pools. When we were done we were starving (of course) so we hit up the Wendy's that was right across the street. And it wasn't necessarily the best idea we've ever had.

The food was fine, for the most part. But the service... that was a different story. I was dealing with the reality of the incredibly slow people working behind the counter. (And I'm not making a reference to their mental capacity here. They all just moved incredibly slowly.) But as sad as it is, that's pretty much par for the course in any service industry these days, so we've all gotten used to it.


So no, that wasn't what bothered me so much. What got to me was when I finally reached the counter. The kid asked what he could get for me, and I got as far as "Can I have..." before the kid just walked away. Not a word. Just turned, walked (slowly) to the back, got the food for the people in front of me and (still slowly) brought it back to the counter for them.

After a minute or two he finally came back, mumbled "sorry about that" and asked again what he could get for me. I paused for a moment to make sure he would stay this time, and then finally got to place my order (and eventually we got our food.)

I know that good customer service doesn't come naturally to everyone, but seriously?! However sad this service might have been, though, in the end I just have to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Because you kind of have to. If you can't laugh at stuff like that, it'll eventually start to get you down. And who needs that?

My Trick for Staying Motivated

Exercising is not necessarily something that comes to me naturally. Having lived for so many years with several conditions that cause sever chronic pain, it is often very difficult for me to move at all, let alone move enough to call it exercise.

But in recent years, as I've worked to take more control over my life and my conditions, I've made a serious effort to find things that I can do to help me get in shape. And I've developed a great relationship with my elliptical machine.

As with any relationship, though, you run the risk of having things get stale. You have to try to find ways to keep things interesting. And you have to find ways to keep yourself motivated to stay with it. So over the summer, as the temptation to "just take the day off" became an almost daily struggle, I had to find a way to keep myself from giving in (and giving up on something that I had worked so hard to build.)

Because you know how easy it is to talk yourself out of doing something that takes hard work. No arm-twisting needed. Just a flimsy excuse will do.

So I came up with a trick to help me ignore the voice of my sweat pants. As soon as I get up in the morning, I change out of my jammies and into my gym clothes. That way I know that as soon as I'm done getting the kids fed (and taking care of all the other morning responsibilities) I will go and work out.

This works for two reasons. 1) Gym clothes don't lie, and there's no hiding those bulging reminders of why I need to work out. And 2) If I start trying to weasel out of exercise, I remind myself that I'm already dressed for it, so I may as well do it. (It sounds silly, I know, but it works.)


Unplanned side note:
As I sat down with my coffee this morning, I had another unexpected reminder of why staying motivated to exercise is necessary and important. I wasn't feeling all that great today (the weather has been aggravating the pain quite a bit lately) so I chose a coffee mug that would make me smile. Because any little reason to smile helps.

I love this mug, and it does always make me smile. The only thing is, I usually hold my mug with my left hand, which means that this is the part that I see:

So there's another motivator. Get up and get exercising before I'm so "stuffed with fluff" that my big butt won't even fit through the door. :)

Sometimes Remakes are Okay

Since I told you yesterday about the awesomely bad movie I recently saw, I thought I'd follow up with an actual good movie that I also recently saw.

I always kind of have mixed emotions about remakes (or "re-imaginings.") They run the gamut from well-done to terrible, with a lot of largely-unnecessary thrown in. But since we ran out of ideas years ago, and thus remakes and sequels are pretty much all we get any more, I've resigned myself to dealing with them.

I wasn't sure about Man of Steel when I first heard about it, and kind of thought I could take it or leave it. But since it seemed like everyone I knew was talking about how great it was, I decided to give it a try. And while I didn't think it was the be-all, end-all of superhero movies, I agree that it was pretty darn good.

I wasn't really familiar with Henry Cavill before this, but I thought that he was a good fit for the part. Handsome, obviously, with a beautifully genuine smile that really makes you believe that he's the good guy that he's portraying. Michael Shannon made a sufficiently creepy General Zod, and I even thought Amy Adams (who I sometimes like and sometimes don't) made a decent Lois Lane.

The rest of the cast made a good ensemble. And, let's be honest, any time that Russel Crowe doesn't sing and Kevin Costner doesn't hurt himself trying to do an accent is a win.

For my money, there were only really two drawbacks to the movie. One was the length. At almost two and a half hours, I was kind of tired of sitting there by the time it was over. Not that it was slow or dragged at all; I was just ready for it to be over be the time we got there.

The other thing that bothered me a little bit (and the thing that could have solved the length problem) was the overly-gratuitous destruction of the city. I'm not one of those "stop the violence!" people. And I get that superheros always destroy the cities that they're protecting. But for some reason the climactic fight scene here seemed to go on a bit too long, and try too hard to be "bigger and better" than other movies.

Those two slight issues aside, this was still a pretty great movie. It was entertaining, and exciting, and definitely worth the price of admission.

Arcades, All Stars, and Awesomely Bad Movies

It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here. 

Arcades
My husband had the idea over the weekend that we should go somewhere we had never been before. So we headed over to our local Dave & Buster's (a place we had talked about going before, but never got around to it.) It's not someplace that I would go every day (it's loud, and exhausting) but we had a good time. The food was decent (if a bit overpriced), and there were plenty of games to keep us entertained for quite a while.

All Stars
We took the kids shoe shopping last week (part of the back-to-school joy) and because Famous Footwear is having a BOGO sale, I decided to treat myself to something.

Yep. Those are my awesome new purple Converse All Stars. I know it's silly to be this excited about a pair of shoes. But I've always wanted these, and yet for some reason never got around to getting them. Now they're mine. And they're adorable.

I was so excited I even did a coordinating manicure.

Awesomely Bad Movies
Please, please tell me you caught Sharknado on the Syfy channel last week! It was, by far, the best bad movie I've seen in a very long time. And I do mean bad. It was terrible. Awful, even. But it was so, so funny. A ridiculous scenario combined seamlessly with the incredibly bad acting that was rivaled only by the horrible special effects to create a perfect storm of badness.

Still not convinced? Check out these clips:

Or, if you just want to see the best moment on TV ever, check out the clip found here. (Sorry, I couldn't get it to embed here, but trust me when I say it's worth following the link.) Yes, that's Ian Ziering jumping into a shark with a chainsaw. And then cutting himself out of the shark. And then pulling out the girl that was eaten a few minutes before.

I mean, seriously - how could you not love this?! And in case you missed it, there is good news. Syfy is showing it again this Thursday, the 18th. Go! Set your DVR now!



Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and let's all have a great week!

And if you're a blogger and would like to get in on the LML fun, feel free to grab the code and join the blog hop! Your post doesn't specifically have to use the "LML" label (although you're welcome to use it if you'd like, and the graphic that goes along with it.) If you have any kind of happy, positive Monday message that you'd like to share you're welcome to join. The more happy vibes, the better the Monday!

Be Silly Now and Then

One of the big truths about kids is that they never have to be reminded to be silly. They'll pretty much do it all the time, no matter what (and whether you want them to or not.) It's basically their default setting.

Adults, on the other hand... we sometimes need reminding. Or at least encouraging. I think that sometimes we get so busy with our adult responsibilities that we forget the importance of silliness. Thanks goodness the kids are here to show us the way.

Last night after I finished washing the dinner dishes I walked into the kids' playroom to find my son getting a ride on my husband's back. (My husband was a horse, naturally. But somewhere along the way he turned in to an At-At Walker. It was a logical progression somehow.)

Of course I did the only thing I could - shot down the At-At, saved the rebels, and then became a mermaid and went for a swim with my daughter. (What would you have done?) With all of the laughter and goofiness, it was one of the best, most relaxing evenings I've had in a long time.

So next time you start feeling like too much of a grownup, and the pressures of adulthood start getting you down, just take a break. Have a little fun. Do something silly. I think you'll be glad you did.

When the Refrigerator Dies

I have to be honest with you guys. At times it is super-easy for me to find the bright side of the situation. Other times... not so much. Yes, I eventually always get there. It just takes a little more work during those more interesting times. Like last night, for example.

Our fridge has been doing this thing for a while where the freezer section frosts over and the fridge part starts losing its ability to stay completely cold. So we have to scrape out the ice (which oddly is not as much fun as it sounds) and wait for things to cool back down.

Up until now it's been a relatively minor inconvenience, and has yet to outweigh the major inconvenience and expense of having someone come out and fix it, so we've just been dealing with it. But this time it got worse. This time, despite our best ice-scraping efforts, things did not cool back down right away.

It didn't take long before the reality of un-refrigerated food set in. I got frustrated. I got a little sad. I got a little angry. Then I got over it, and set about the task of cleaning out the fridge. Sometimes all you can do is suck it up and deal, after all. No use crying over spoiled milk, right?

Anyone who has ever done it knows how much fun cleaning out the fridge isn't. And cleaning it out because it isn't cold any more and all of your food is now in various stages of spoilage is even less fun. (Do you want to know what happens to a brand new tub of cottage cheese when the fridge goes out? I didn't want to either, but unfortunately now I do. ... Best not to think too much about it.)

So after I put the kids to bed last night I got to spend a little time bonding with my garbage disposal. (I'm pretty sure the disposal enjoyed it more than I did.) And as I got through the more obvious stuff that had to go, I realized how long it had been since I had really examined the things that live on the back shelves.

You know those things. Like the almost-empty jar of pickle relish. And the almost-empty jar of salsa. And the jar of mayonnaise that you don't remember buying, or even understand why you did, because nobody in the house is ever going to eat it. Why are those things still in there?

Yeah, I know why they're still there. And it's only partly because we're all too lazy to clean our our fridge until we absolutely have to. It's also because we don't like letting go. (I wrote about this idea once before, as you may recall. But apparently the Universe thought I needed another reminder, because here we are again.)

So as I cleared away all the things that had no more purpose in my fridge (no more stupid jar of mayonnaise!) I realized how good it felt to be tossing away the unneeded clutter. Not only was it incredibly liberating, but it also helped me to better see the things that I could use, but hadn't because they had been left hidden and unnoticed. (Hello BBQ sauce. Nice to see you again.)

And then I realized how much unneeded clutter I've had in my head lately, and how much I really need to let it go, for the sake of my sanity (and that of the people around me.) I might have to live with the chronic pain, but I don't have to hold on to the negative emotions that spring up around it. Those are really hard to let go of sometimes, but I have to try.

So thank you, broken refrigerator, for making me clear away some unnecessary garbage, and for reminding me about an important part of life.

Old Friends and Karaoke

It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here. 


Among all of the other holiday festivities going on this past week, I also had the immense joy of attending a Karaoke Party hosted by my dear friend Miss Riki. Although we keep in touch regularly online, I don't get to see her in person nearly as often as I'd like, so this weekend was quite a treat.

And that treat was doubled, because at the party I also go to see another great lady (that I've known since high school, but also don't see nearly as often as I'd like.) It was lovely to hang out by the pool and do some catching up. It's always a shame when so much time passes between visits with old friends, but it's wonderful to be able to pick right back up like no time has passed. That's what real friendship is all about.

Now, fortunately Miss Riki was kind enough as to not force all of her guests to sing at this Karaoke Party. (And I'm pretty sure that was a wise choice on her part, considering what everyone would have had to sit through had I picked up the mic.) But she was also kind enough to allow anyone who did want to sing, and my kids were thrilled to take part.

We were treated to such hits as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." It was wonderful.


Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and let's all have a great week!

And if you're a blogger and would like to get in on the LML fun, feel free to grab the code and join the blog hop! Your post doesn't specifically have to use the "LML" label (although you're welcome to use it if you'd like, and the graphic that goes along with it.) If you have any kind of happy, positive Monday message that you'd like to share you're welcome to join. The more happy vibes, the better the Monday!

Patriotic Nail Art

Besides making fun treats for the 4th of July, my daughter and I continued our holiday nail art tradition this year. It has evolved a bit, though (as traditions sometimes do) and we got more creative (and had even more fun) than we did last year.

Thanks to my stamp set and image plates, we have a lot more options now.

And so we decided to really go with the "stars and stripes" theme.

As usual, the shared mani/pedi with my daughter was one of the best parts of my holiday. And I loved how excited she got about the "beautiful!" design, and how much fun she had showing off our matching nails to everyone we saw. The kids can keep their cupcakes. This was my special holiday treat.

Firework Cupcakes

Among the other holiday traditions in my house, one of the recent additions is making special treats on the 4th of July. (Last year it was S'mores Pops. The year before it was flower shaped muffins.) And this year they decided to make (and decorate) "firework" cupcakes. We ended up not being able to make them on the 4th, but they were still fun (and tasty) the next day.

We started with Funfetti cake mix (because the kids thought it looked festive.)

 And after helping measure the water and oil and count the eggs, both kids helped mix the batter.

 And of course I didn't forget the best part of baking.

 And the second-best part - decorating!

 And the inevitable mess. Good thing kids are washable.

 Add some sprinkles and some marshmallows...

 ...and our masterpieces are complete.

 And there you have the delicious "firework" cupcakes. Don't they just look good enough to eat? :)