Monday, December 28, 2009

Share your thoughts with me about....

HOMESCHOOLING

I know when I think of homeschooling I think of the woman who's plain jane wearing someone from an earlier generations hand-me-downs with children who are messy and a little "weird".

Lover Boy suggested a few months ago that we homeschool our children. I laughed at the suggestion with my vivid picture in mind of what a homeschooler looks like and what her children look like. He informed me that he was serious and started pointing out some very important things to me. I kinda agreed with him for a moment, but you know my impressions that I have in my head have been there so long that I wasn't completely sold on the idea, regardless of how good it sounded.

Then I started noticing some of my friends have opted to and are homeschooling their children. Blogs that I stalk often refer to homeschooling and how everyone loves it. Is it becoming a new trend or has it always been and I've just never had my eyes open to it?

Have I been mistaken all these 28 years of life? Could there be something out there that I haven't known? Am I so naive to picture a person who homeschools and the poor children the way that I'd described?

I will completely admit that I do like the idea of homeschooling. Last night I spent over 5 hours reading pros and cons and different methods/styles of homeschooling and seriously I think I'm hands down all for it!

I'm not going to share why I now feel so supportive of homeschooling, I want to hear what your thoughts about the whole idea are. Will you judge me and my children and make fun of them or assume they are socially inadequate? If there wasn't such a stigmata attached to homeschooled children I'd pull Little Princess out of preschool right this second, ok really I'd wait til Monday when she returns to school. My concerns are just the stupid semi-unimportant "what will others think?" It is silly and stupid to care what others think, however others reactions and the way they treat others do affect us all and I don't want my child discriminated. So that is why I am asking for your opinions and thoughts.

Thanks in advance:)

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Cherish the Moments

If I have crossed your path the pass few days, you know from my obvious behavior that I've been a little Negative Nancy. I've had nothing but complaints streaming from my mouth...how sad!! Especially at this most wonderful and magical time of year. Today I realized that if I were the person talking to me (or I should admit, listening to me) I would not want to be around me . I really don't enjoy downer people and am sure I'm not alone on that one.

From today forward (sounds like a resolution for 2010, that will begin a week early) I will be "the glass is always full" type of gal. I promise that I will constantly force myself to see only the blessings in my life (which are so abundant). However, I will admit that sometimes I do like to write down my struggles and those nasty thoughts that are in my head...maybe so that when others feel them they won't feel alone. I know when I struggle I do appreciate learning that other people go through the same things and that I CAN survive it all.

This post will be honest and parts a bit depressing for me...however I will point out the good things that come from the bad.

Christmas is truly a magical time of year (I can't even start writing this without tears filling my eyes). I remember as a child all the wonderful excitement and energy this season brings. Christ was born, his life started here. We read of the Christmas story and learn and reflect on the life Christ led for each one of us. We sing the songs that also remind us of our purpose in this life and recognize our role model. Santa rewards us on Christmas morning for good deeds and actions that we've done.

As we grow older we look forward to creating similar memories with our children. We want to teach them the true meaning of Christmas and enjoy their sweet spirits and enthusiasm as Christmas draws near. Many of us have traditions that we expect to be able to carry on to our own little families or ones that we'd like to start.

This year, Little Princess's family from Mexico came into town to celebrate with all their grandchildren and family. How very fortunate for Little Princess to be able to celebrate with them and be part of the love that emulates from their family at this time of year. I knew it would be so special for her to spend as much time as possible with them so I suggested that she spend the entire week with them until Christmas, however once she was gone from my home and the reality of all my "dreams of Christmas with children" would not be what I had hoped for, I held a major pity party for myself in her absence. I felt like I was being jipped for "my Christmas". I had no sweet 4 year old asking "is there only 3 days left?" "Mommy what time is Santa coming?" or staying up hardly able to sleep Christmas Eve. And I chose to only focus on what I was missing! How terribly sad I now realize that I was so self absorbed and didn't just delight in the fact that she was having a truly wonderful Christmas and that I could be too with Little Man and Lover Boy.

I have thought and cried and cried some more and finally did a little more thinking and realized that our dreams are never the way real life works. Even if her daddy and I stayed married and we wouldn't have to send away our Little Princess for Christmas there'd be something else that would'nt have been in my dreams. My dreams just need to be altered. I need to cherish each moment that I am with my children so that the days they are gone I can know and feel confident that the last time I saw her was the best day. (I know this is so much easier said than done, right?!) I fully understand that there will be many bad days in the mix, those are unavoidable, but that for every bad minute we need to make sure to have 10 good ones.

Lover Boy and I have set goals with each other to spend more quality time together, we spend about every minute of every day together but it adds up to only be a number of hours spent together at the end of the day and we decided that we want to change that and make it memories not hours. Last night we played a few of the games we'd gotten for Christmas with Little Princess and had so much fun, as she crawled in her bed she gave me a big hug and said "Mom, I love you so much, that was so much fun tonight. I love playing games with our family." I came out and mentioned this to Lover Boy and he agreed that we needed to not only make more quality time with he and I but with our children too.

It was at that moment that I realized just because my dreams of "Christmas" didn't come true, that didn't mean that we couldn't still make the most of the little holiday time that we had.

It was a perfect Christmas!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Conversations with a 4 year old

Today we were in the car grabbing the last of our Christmas gifts for our "family/friends". While we were in the car Little Princess was telling me about her friend Aila (pronounced Ila). She was telling me how to pronounce it and spell it and that the capital A is silent. Then I told her that I had wanted to name her a similar name "Ilea". She had a very hard time pronouncing it, then she said "Mommy didn't you want to name me Sophie? and what other names?" I told her I'd wanted Ilea, Sophie, Isabelle and who can remember the rest of the names I'd went through with her daddy. Then I told her how her daddy wanted to name her Ingrid. She laughed and said "oh my goodness that's the dumbest name I've ever heard of". HAHAHA I laughed so hard and told her that's what my reaction was too! We laughed about it for a good hour. Ingrid, Ingrid, Ingrid...hahaha...but I will confess the name has grown on me and I no longer think it is so atrocious, however I'm glad I didn't give in and that we found a much more suiting name for our little princess.


Today we went to a missionary homecoming. Before the meeting started Little Princess was entertaining herself by finding letters in the hymn book. After finding some letters she turned to the back of the book in the index and said "Mommy lets find your name. How do you spell Loser?" I laughed so hard....minutes later I was still laughing. This kid is so funny.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Special Order Items

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!!
I've Now sold practically everything I had left over! YAY!!! HAPPY!


If you want to order anything I will of course do special orders on certain items that i've listed with pricing below, just email me: tmmonroy@yahoo.com or call 801-458-9867

The long Magnet Board is $25, (one of my best selling items)
It is only the magnet board no magnets,
i just put some of my own and pictures on there for show:)

The Post with Hangers : $45
Knock and it shall be opened : $25 (#1 seller)

Key to Happiness is Smiling: $25
Spring birdie: $15
Candy Cane: $20
Snowman: $20
Knock and it shall be opened: $25
Happy Birthday Clown: $20
Sewing Bird: $25
Key to happiness is Smiling board: $25

Pedestal Magnet Board (it's in the far right corner): $20
Snowman: $20
Sewing Bird: $25
Happy Birthday Clown: $20

Post with Hangers: $45
Snowman: $20
Christ was born magnet board: $45
Merry and Bright Magnet Board: $45
Picket Fence Bench: $40
Spring Bird: $15
Spring Bird: $15
Candy Cane: $20

Sunday, December 6, 2009

what a month...

I refuse to apologize, I would like to but I'm gonna just say it was all worth it!!

Have I lost you yet? I have not blogged very faithfully for at least the last month. I love (really honestly) blogging, you know it's a release for me, a place for me to get out my feelings and emotions judgement free (lol, i know readers will judge me, but i don't see facial expressions or hear tones of voices) and a place for me to relish in what will soon be my memories.

I often catch myself needing to blog...but lately I've distracted myself with other things, and that is what I refuse to apologize for. Much has been going on in our life. We have been very busy and when I'm very busy and going in different directions I feel a large amount of emotions which I would like to express on here, yet didn't and I'm ok with that.

After Halloween, our little family started making crafts for a boutique. We decided that since no actual work-for-a-paycheck jobs were coming through, that we HAD to do something. We have a garage and basement full of supplies that we felt would be substantial to do a boutique with...and guess what, it was! Lover Boy cut all of the wood, Little Princess and I painted and dressed up everything and Little Man just played.

During this time I realized just how lazy I've become. Each day I would see more and more accomplished and at virtually no out of pocket cost. I enjoyed spending that time with my husband and my daughter. Now of course there were stressful moments, times that I just couldn't have a little body in my way or knocking things over or playing with things and misplacing them...so the kiddos did spend quite a bit of time alone watching movies or playing in their bedrooms. Those are the moments that I realize just how blessed I am with my kids. They are so good. I can put them in their rooms, close the door, and disappear for an hour or so and they don't get into things, they don't climb (yet, knock on wood), they just play and play well together. YAY!!

Mid November Lover Boy and I took our "Honeymoon" finally. We went with 3 of our friends and some other people whom we've become friends with now:) He took a cruise to Catalina Island and Ensanada Mexico. It is a very small 4 day cruise to nowhere spectacular, but that doesn't make it any less fun. We had a blast. I'll blog more about that seperately because I have so many pictures and fun memories to share.

When we came home we jumped right back on our crafting frenzy. Every day seemed to be crafts from the time we woke til way passed my bed time.

During my time crafting, I did a lot of thinking and analyzing. I realized that I'm so blessed. What a perfect time to realize that we have much to be thankful for, right as Thanksgiving approached.
Blessings in my life include:
  • my darling little family who make each day worth getting out of bed for.
  • my family that raised me and help me raise my family. They teach me so much and are always willing to help me whenever I need it.
  • my home. I'm truly lucky to have this home and have a place that fits our family comfortably (of course I'm dying for a slightly bigger home, but that's just cuz I have so much "crap") and that we are able to use it as a supplemental income (renter).
  • love. I'm a very loving person and I'm so thankful for that. I love everyone (although I can honestly say there is one person that I really do NOT care for, but I'm working on that, really I do try). I'm so glad that I love people, and all kinds of people, I really try not to judge and when you can put everything aside how can you not love people?
  • the town i live in. for those of you who know where I live might question why I love living here, but just know that I do. Everything is practically within arms reach. I can walk to the grocery, I could walk just about anywhere that I need to go. And for me that is a blessing...for you it might be a big turn-off, but I love being so close to everything.
  • friends, I've been so blessed with such amazing and caring friends. I have friends from all walks of life and they teach me so much. My friends are always there for me.
  • hugs...I simply love hugs. There truly isn't much a hug can't help fix.
  • my talents-this one is very hard for me to recognize, I always look at others and see how truly amazing they are and compare myself and see how I don't quite add up...but while I was crafting I thought well this is at least one talent that I do have, and I'm not saying that anyone isn't better than I, because the way I craft is simple (obviously if I have my 4 yr old helping me do every step) and I think most people are just afraid to try it, because I know anyone could do it.
  • My life. My life is such a blessing, each day I learn something new. Whether it's through a great experience or through sorrow I'm constantly learning new lessons...now sometimes I might not take the time to focus on what is meant to be learn, but eventually it broadsides me and I learn at least a little.

I am blessed, even though there are many times that I struggle and think I'd like to throw in the towel I have so much to be thankful for.

Oh and one blessing that I didn't mention is having a truly brilliant daughter. This little girl is so smart and understands just so much she amazes me. This is for my memories, don't feel obligated to read. Mid November (2 days before we left on our cruise) I found out that my unemployment was going to be reevaluated and they were putting me on a 2 week hold. I am about to admit just how white trash we are (and believe me this is a complete embarrassement to me but...) we live on my unemployment and our savings. Lover Boy is collecting too, but his seems like pennies and couldn't ever support us. So a 2 week hold (effective immediately) killed us. We had just barely depleted our savings account so we couldn't even rely on that to get us by. Fortunately I was able to make some visits to my car lender and make arrangements with them to hold my car payment this month and we decided that our flexible spending would just have to be drastically cut down and basically eliminated as well as a few other payments would just have to be late, until I did the boutique and could get everything hopefully caught up. Anyways my children have problems with milk. Little Princess can ONLY have Soy Milk. 1/2 a gal is $4.00. She drinks a lot of milk which ends up costing us quite a bit each month, which honestly I'm not complaining about because I'm so happy that she loves milk and will pay whatever to have her drink it, however during this time that we couldn't go to the grocery store or what not, she had only a little bit of milk left. When she was thirsty through out the day I asked her to only drink water, I explained to her that she needed to save her milk for breakfast and dinner because it was nearly gone, and once it was gone I couldn't just run to the store and replace it for a week or so. A day after explaining this to her, she came up to me and said that she was ready to paint a lot of things because she really wanted a glass of milk for her snack but she knew that she had to work hard so she could help mommy make some money for her milk. Bless this child's sweet heart. I'm thankful for our financial struggles because it is teaching my daughter that money doesn't just come everytime you put your debit card in the ATM, and that you have to work for money. So i guess this struggle that I absolutely despise is worth it as long as my children learn from it and remember it when they are older.

Ok here's pictures of the finished projects from the boutique: If you want to order anything I will of course do special orders on certain items that i've listed with pricing below, just email me: tmmonroy@yahoo.com or call 801-458-9867

The long Magnet Board is $25, It is only the magnet board no magnets, i just put some of my own and pictures on there for show:)


The Post with Hangers : $45
Knock and it shall be opened: $25

Key to Happiness is Smiling: $25
Spring birdie: $15
Candy Cane: $20
Snowman: $20
Knock and it shall be opened: $25
Happy Birthday Clown: $20
Sewing Bird: $25
Key to happiness is Smiling board: $25

Pedestal Magnet Board (it's in the far right corner): $20
Snowman: $20
Sewing Bird: $25
Happy Birthday Clown: $20

Post with Hangers: $45
Snowman: $20
Christ was born magnet board: $45
Merry and Bright Magnet Board: $45
Picket Fence Bench: $40
Spring Bird: $15
Spring Bird: $15
Candy Cane: $20

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Come On Over...

come on over baby (imagine me singing it, no wait, don't then you might run in the other direction)

Cuz I'm finally doing another boutique!!! After 2 years in "retirement" I've come out of my "NO CRAFTING" slump.

I've got some things that I'm simply so excited about.

There will be Christmas decor as well as year round treasures.

As I fully understand that everyone around the world is feeling crunched on finances, I've done my very best to keep prices affordable to all.

So, when is this boutique? Dec 5th 9-3. Where? At 311 chimes view dr.
And just a heads up, if you've come to my boutiques before you may have noticed that things tend to go quickly. There are just a few people who have to get here right at opening...and I've received a heads up that it will be happening again. YAY!!!! but, since I'm doing it solo this time I do fear that I don't have enough done :( so due to this fear...and since I know only what I like (and I'm fine with admitting that my favorites, likely won't be yours) and not what everyone else will and what not...I will offer special orders on certain items.

I hope so badly to see you SATURDAY...even if you are pennyless as I am, just come by and say Hi, I'll try not to cough or sneeze on you (I am praying that it will be gone by then).

And if you can't make it, no worries...I'll invite you to my next one in the spring, which I'm already planning some really amazing things for...and if you don't ever come, well then I'm not sure we'll remain friends. hahaha ok so I'm totally joking.

PS. all crafts have been hand-made by our entire family. Little Princess has helped with the painting, and Little Man has drooled on some (I've done my best to sanitize them), and then of course Lover Boy and I have done all the easy things that the other 2 didn't. Even my wonderful mommy helped with some.