If You Give a Mom A Few Minutes of Peace and Quiet...

If You Give A Mom A Few Minutes of Peace and Quiet...

If you give a Mom a few minutes of peace and quiet
She’ll settle down to scrapbook a layout.
She’ll pull out her scissors and paper.
Then, a toy lying on the floor will catch her eye.
She’ll pick it up.
Putting it away, she'll pass by the kitchen.
She’ll remember she forgot to start the dishwasher.
When she finishes filling the soap dispenser, she'll notice crumbs on the floor.
She’ll pull out the broom and sweep.
Dumping the crumbs into the trash can, she notices that the trash needs to be taken out.
She will pull out the trash for her older son to take out once he returns home.
She’ll start down the stairs to resume her scrapbook project and remember how her day is much like the book, "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie."
She'll go find the book and a bookshelf will fall down.
She will pull out the book and the toys.
She will then decide that she needs to write her own "Mommy's" version of the story.
The phone will then ring
And she'll spend time chit chatting on the phone.

She’ll look up at the clock and notice that she only has 10 minutes of quiet time left.
She’ll finish her story.
While she is finishing up, she'll notice she has email in her "inbox".
She will answer the emails.
She’ll hear someone playing around upstairs while they are suppose to be resting.
She'll go upstairs and request the child rest for a few more minutes.
And chances are,
On her way back down the stairs, she will see the paper and scissors lying on the counter and want to scrapbook.

But, her few minutes of peace and quiet are over!

Still struggling to maintain focus!

Guo Nian Hao!

Happy Chinese New Year! Slowly, but surely we are getting the hang of celebrating this holiday...We took it to a whole new level this year - I actually cooked the food - Yep, you read that right - I braved the unknown! Falling into old habits, I lost my "focus" last night... At dinner last night, Mike and I had decided what we would be ordering from our local chinese food place and had figured out the logistics of getting it home. Well, at 8:30 last night, you know who (me) finds a site with all sorts of cool stuff...Before I knew it, I had made my grocery list and was determined to cook the food myself, I was printing lucky money red envelopes (the plain red ones were no longer fine), I was on a chair hanging red and yellow lanterns in the kitchen, and I was digging through the books for the Chinese New Year books. See.... Here is the proof - I need to focus!
Today, I dove right in - after a trip to the grocery store with all 3 kids because this was so unplanned - and made homemade spring rolls/egg rolls, cashew chicken, sweet and sour chicken, and rice! We even had fortune cookies and tangerines (symbolize good health and long life). Luckily, the kids do not know the difference between tangerines and oranges - I couldn't bring myself to buy the tangerines at the grocery store as the looked gross! How do they expect us to have good health and long life with nasty looking tangerines? ;o)
Since we had yet another snow day we got to do several things to celebrate: Watched Big Bird Goes to China, colored some Chinese New Year coloring pages, read several China and Chinese New Year books, and created fireworks with watercolors and a straw. Morgan also gave a spontaneous little geography lesson showing Rylee where everyone in the family was born.
Whew! I am exhausted! Next year, my goal is to learn how to make homemade fortune cookies. A few photos from the day...

New Year - New Word

I have decided that the whole New Years resolution thing just does not work for me. Some in the "scrapbooking community" have created the concept of a new word for the year. Now, that is a concept that is totally me! So, I have been thinking for weeks now on what word I would choose for the new year. There were so many words, but I kept coming back to the same one...Can you guess what that word would be? FOCUS This year, I want to purposeful and focused on those things in my life that are important to me. It is so easy to have my eyes looking in one direction, but not see the things that are directly in front of me because I am too distracted by those things lingering in the periphery. Sometimes, I can be focused but I need to adjust it slightly for clarity. I am going to print out my word, put it in a frame as a daily reminder of my goal for 2009. I am sure that throughout the year the word will take on new meaning and I look forward to journaling the journey!