Forgetful

I can't believe that I have not thought about this before!  I am hugely forgetful and little reminder notes are not working for me because I forget where they are.  Then there is that huge, ugly mirror in the bathroom that I am always plotting against.  It was not until a couple of days ago that I was able to look past it rough, massive, unframed, rectangularness to see a blank canvas.  What a perfect place to write.  I look at that thing every morning.  Forget the paper!  I have been taking an expo to it and loving it.  It wipes right off.  Bonus is that with all the wiping, that gargantuan mirror has been staying cleaner!  :D --> This is a kool-aid smile moment for a person who is domestically challenged.
Now this is a lot more function than fashion but lets face it, the monster mirror was not rocking fashion in the first place.
I have a to do list, a done list, a good job list for my daughter, and a loving good morning note for my daughter.  I am going to start playing with colored expos soon.  So far, if it is on the mirror it has not been overlooked.  THIS IS GREAT!  Plus, if ever the mirror and I have a falling out and I decide to do something to make it more fashionable, I can still use it as a board.  I don't have to see where a board would go or change my routine at all.  I can't stop smiling.  This is awesome!  I love how the pictures make it look like it is word art on the wall.  So far, this seems to have no cons.  I will have to keep you posted if one comes up.  Another tiny step to my becoming all organized and junk!  Woo hoo!

Time with friends

This month is full of ups and downs.  This post will be about the ups, namely friendship.  Being a widow is not an easy thing.  It is all too tempting to let go of everything.  After 7 months, I am actively participating in friendship again.  I have a very special person in my life.  She has drawn me out from the very beginning and it is because of her and her unwavering dedication to me and my daughter that I am able to move forward and be a little social.  I know that she has no idea how much she has done for us.

This month, I enjoyed lunch with her.  She took me to get my first pedicure ever.  I was nervous about it but it was great!  I always had the impression that pedicures were an acquired taste.  I was sure that I would get thrown out for accidently kicking the nail tech since my feet are sensitive.  Then there was the gross factor.  I didn't understand why the water was blue.  How often do they wash those tubs.  Some people have some really grungy, contagious toes.  So, naturally, I avoided it.  Here, I openly admit, I was wrong.  It is really relaxing.  I still wonder about hygiene but I really enjoyed it.  We went to meet another good friend's baby boy.  It was a great day, as usual.  Later this month, she will be helping me and my daughter with yet another huge step.  It will be another reason for me to be eternally grateful to her for her love.

I enjoyed a barbeque with some new friends this month.  They are wonderful people.  My daughter didn't want to leave :)!  Great food, pool time, karaoke, friends, and smiles.  Everything was awesome save for one awkward moment.  You know the stories that start with a friend of a friend brought a friend that no one else knows...  Hours of fun + 15 minutes of awkward weirdness = still a great day!
I also made time for lunch with a good friend that I had not seen since the service.  She lives as a woman but was born a male and her life is more difficult for it.  It makes me angry.  Why are we so nosey as a culture.  Life is hard for the lot of us, why do some people make it harder for some.  It makes me really sad.  My friend has struggled since he was a young boy.  He has always felt feminine.  Coming from a religious family, he has always struggled with feeling wrong and misplaced.  I don't think there is a need for the judgement of strangers.  There is a fierce, on-going debate concerning christianity and the gay community.  I am a christian.  I don't pretend to know everything about truth and righteousness because of it and I do not use religion as an excuse to judge people.  It is my honest opinion that God is great and does not need my opinion or help when it comes to his own judgement.  I can feel all the 'but the Bible says' comments now.  The truth is that not many people have read the Bible in its original state but for all of you who rely so much on what the bible says, please provide the versus where it gives you permission to judge, shun, and ridicule those that are different from you or the verse that states that your help is needed for judgement.  I don't mean this in a negative way.  I do not remember everything I read in the Bible.  I don't care to hear about interpretations of words and what they could mean, I want black and white here.  I know that the Bible says to love thy neighbor.  I mentions nothing about the prescreening process.  It does not tell me to analyze spiritual standing or sexual preferences.  I get pretty tired of those that boast the greatness of God and then insist that he is not powerful enough to handle things on his own.  So, is my friend's lifestyle right or wrong?  How am I supposed to know?  I don't even know if my lifestyle is right or wrong.  I live by love.  Whether I chose correctly is something that I will only know for sure in the end.  I am a friend, no matter what.  I won't cast stones.  I could probably go on about this forever, but I don't want to get too far off topic.  It's just something I wish my friend didn't have to go thru.

The Nester's - An easy easter craft story.

These are The Nester's.  Are they not cute?...

I posted this super easy, super cheap craft up on my hub pages.

I kept it short and simple there, but here I can tell you all about my adventure.  Lets start with the craft.  When I say cheap, I mean cheap.  

Walmart had the Yarn for $1.77.  You could make a ton of these with the little ball of yarn.  They had hairspray for $0.94.  I didn't need it because I had some from like 2000 that I never use.  I am not really the hair and make up type.  I got a bag of little balloons for $0.94.  I had the double sided tape, but that can't be more than $2 and the tissue I had but I know that is about $1 or less.  Peeps are super cheap and the chocolate eggs were BOGO at Publix plus I had coupons so I used my free ones.  I only needed to make 2 for K's 2 teachers but I could have made enough for a small crew.

I thought it would be perfect if I ever decided to host easter brunch.  It would be really cute on the table at each seat.  Then, of coarse, that brings out even more ideas for using these in different colors.  I thought of baby showers and other things that other's can use it for.  These crafts came to me after I flipped out about another craft.  I wanted to make something a dear friend made for me a long time ago.  We are talking at least 4 years ago.  For a girl that has a memory issue, this was a crazy attempt.  She made this delicate little crochet egg.  It was so pretty.  Now that I think about it, what was I thinking?  It has been years.  I had no directions and she has not made them again which should tell me that they were a pain in the tukish!  I knew that I got the wrong string when I got it home.  K and I tried anyway.  What a disaster.  The string would not stay and it looked horrible.  A little bit later, frustrated momma stabs a couple of balloons and carries a soaking wet, messed up globe of hairsprayed yarn over to the garbage to be passionately disposed of while growling.  Honestly, I thought I used up all of my patience in the first 32 years of my life.
I wanted to enjoy crafting with my baby girl (9).  All of the sudden, it was bedtime.  I told her she would have something to share with her teacher and I didn't mean the wet mess in the trash can.  It was after my 2 minute tantrum that the idea for these nests came to me.  Thank the lord.  K loved them!  As it turned out, I still have some patience in me, my filters are just not functioning well.  So, now I have small tantrums here and there.  :D

Pinteresting!

So, all of the sudden, I started to pay pinterest some attention.  Now, I am not sure if this is the new me.  I don't know if I now become a temporary fanatic about new things.  I just LOVE pinterest.  It is freeing up some of my time and space.  For me, pinterest is an enormous memory bank.  There are so many things that I once wished I could bookmark and find at a later date.  So many ideas and inspirations for a future birthday, move, or what have you.  A lot of them are just gone.  I don't have a good memory.  I always had moments where I knew there was an awesome idea out there but I just didn't remember what it was, where I saw it, or how to find it.

It is also introducing me to a world of blogs that I never visited.  I am very new at it but I think I am pin happy.  Well, this is short and sweet.  Here is the pin page if you want to visit.  Feel free to leave yours in the comments so that I can see yours.  :)

http://pinterest.com/momssecret/