Dear Hanging by a Silver Lining Blog

It is 9:26 pm.

I have been trying to spend some time with you all day.

You were even on my list of things to do today.

Right below "write missionary brother" and right above "eat healthy".

I got the brother written and I tried to eat healthy and here I am spending a few moments with you.

See. You are important to me.

Even more important than eating healthy?

Meh.

Let's just say easier to do than eating healthy. (And yes! Chocolate covered strawberries do count as a healthy snack. Hello! Fresh fruit! Smothered in chocolate!)

Anyway.

I just put four little people to bed.

Yep.

At 9:26 pm.

On a school night.

But I made sure those four little people got kisses, hugs, piano practice, homework, family time, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, chocolate covered strawberries, and lots of love before their sweet little heads ever hit the pillow.

Doing all that all day has me plum worn out.

Sorry poor little neglected blog.

You're going to have to wait until tomorrow. I will put you on my to do list again.

Right above "exercise" and right below "make sure to do all you can to be the best mama and wifey you can today".

A girl has to have some priorities, ya' know?

Love,
Me

P.S. This song is my current favorite. It makes me wish I had a really tall building, a really big voice, and some really big chops to sing it at the top of my lungs to the world.

Your Daily Dose of Vitamin "Cee"

Don't feel obligated to gush over my obviously beautiful baby.

I've just been dying to use that blog post title for a while now.

Mission. Accomplished.

Repost: La Lament Le Laundry

I have been struggling with the same mountainous pile of laundry for the past three weeks.

No lie.

I thought a little repost, this one in particular, was in order as I spend the day taking this bad mamba jamba down.

Happy Thursday everyone!

P.S. You can find a fresh new post of mine over at MMB today!
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The laundry.



It lounges.
It loiters.
It lurks.

In a labyrinth of
lusty,
lugubrious
levels.



The lady of the land,

She is the luckless, laden laundress.

How was she leveled to this
loathsome,
lowbrow
labor?



Loyal to the love of the lord and the lodgers,

She launches herself lithely into the laundering livelihood, lugging the leagues from the lobby and the loft.



The landslide of laundry leans under her laudable lather,

But as the load lingers,
she languishes,
lachrymose for liberty...

...or at least a little lounge.



Landlocked by the lapels.

She longs and grows

lackadaisical,
lackluster,
listless.



But, liable to her loved ones,

she leaps off her laurels,
empties the lint trap,
and locates her liveliness again.



Little by little,
the laundry lightens,
laid in lithe loads,
localized in lockers.



The luminous lass is
laughing,
loquacious,
light-hearted.

What the L?!?!

The One Where She Loses a Few Followers

I read something this morning that I wanted to share with you, my friends in the blog world. Whether I have met you in person or not, I consider you my friends.

So here it is.

"Wherefore the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world." ***

I can see you clicking the exit button now. Maybe rolling your eyes and thinking, "Oh great! Here she goes getting all churchy on us"?

Possibly.

But I want to tell you something about myself. Something that I haven't exactly kept hidden but that I haven't been very forward about either here on Hanging by A Silver Lining.

I am a Mormon.

Gasp!

There I said it.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and this means many things to me.

First and foremost, being a Mormon means that I believe in Christ.

I believe that the Savior died, being crucified on the cross, but rose again to live. Before all that He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for the sins of mankind. And you can trust that there was a big old rotten portion of my sins in there. I believe because He did all this that I can be forgiven for all the many things I seem bound and determined to do wrong while I live here on earth. Dang that natural man thing I got going on.

Knowing how easily I screw up makes me forever grateful that someone, an eternal and perfect being no less, would do that for me. Forever grateful, humbled, and in debt.

Because I am a Mormon I choose not to drink alcohol, take drugs, consume tobacco in any form, drink coffee or tea, and as of late I am taking it an extra step and trying to be committed to not drinking Coke and Dr. Pepper either. {whimper}

Because I am a Mormon I made the decision to not have any premarital sex, even with my husband when we were engaged and "practically married". I continue to avoid sexual relations with anyone other than my husband, who I plan to be married to for many years. Like eternity.

Being a Mormon I believe that dancing, singing, listening to loud music, playing rowdy games, watching football, bowling, camping, blogging, swimming, drinking root beer floats, watching Shaytards videos on YouTube, reading novels, eating turkey at Thanksgiving and ham at Christmas are wholesome, fun activities. Ones I often enjoy.

Being a Mormon, I believe the family is eternal IF and only IF we work in this life to live in such a way that we will be worthy to live together in the life hereafter. I believe this, but I confess, this terrifies me. I feel not only a dire responsibility for myself, but for my husband and each of my four children.

Being a Mormon, I knew I wanted to have several children that would not be separated from me even by death. Having LOTS of children is not a commandment, but something I chose to do. Just because I chose to have lots of kids doesn't instantly make me the perfect mom. It's something I have to work at not just daily, but minutely sometimes. Being a Mormon helps me to do that thanks to prayer, repentance, religious instruction and guidance, and support of church community.

Being a Mormon, I believe in the truthfulness and power of a certain book: The Book of Mormon. Although I struggle to find the time and dedication to read and study it daily, I know I should. And I know that when I do, my day just seems to go better; I am happier, I am more patient, kind, and sensitive to spiritual promptings. All good things that help me to be a better mom, wife, friend, and person.

I am a Mormon because I CHOOSE to be a Mormon. I am not a sheep. No one makes me believe in all this. I have had my moments when I have considered scrapping it all and doing whatever the he!! I want. But deep down inside, I KNOW that I have a testimony of this religion. I feel, believe, KNOW it is truth and light and happiness. And that it is right for me.

Being a Mormon doesn't make me perfect. It doesn't put me above anyone else. It doesn't mean I am "saved". It doesn't mean I am not going to screw everything up most days. It doesn't mean I won't say or do or write dumb things. It doesn't save me from cancer or debt or taxes. It doesn't mean I only listen to church music (I actually detest most church music) or don't go to the theater to see the latest movie or avoid chocolate (because I certainly don't).

But being a Mormon does mean something to me. And I wanted you to know that.

***1 Nephi 6:5 (a scripture from The Book of Mormon)

Fly Baby, Fly!

A friend introduced me to the FlyLady last week. Because good friends do that.

The FlyLady and I are slowly getting acquainted. My kiddos keep interrupting our conversation, but we're bound to be the best of friends before too long.

Who's the FlyLady you ask? Allow me to make the introductions.

FLY = Finally Loving Yourself

I like the sound of that.

She sends about a bazillion emails every day, but each one ends with: "You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are. O.K.?"

She must read my blog or at least did yesterday. Check out this email she sent this week:

Dear Friends,

Why is it that we always need a starting point to begin to change our
lives? You know how it is; On Monday I will start a new diet, quit
smoking, start exercising or become a FLY Baby. Some of us wait till
January 1st to begin a life change. If it is such a good idea then
why do we need to wait for some other time to begin???

What is wrong with the Do it Now Principle? DING! I have
preached for years that you are not behind and you can jump in
anytime. Some days I have been known to start over in the middle of
the afternoon.

Here is what I do:

Let's say for some reason I am having trouble getting my day started
and it is 2:00 pm.

1. I go look at my bed and if it is not made I make it. There are
days when I have to jump up and get the phone that seems to start me
off on the wrong foot. So I just pretend to be getting out of bed for
the first time.

2. Then I pick out some more clothes to put on. Because what I am
wearing isn't energizing me. I must have gotten dressed fast.

3. Then I go get into the bathtub. A good soak helps me to focus
again.

4. Then I get out of tub and get dressed. As I am dressing, I swish
and swipe the bathroom. (wipe down the counter, put things away and
swish the toilet bowl with a brush)

5. I put on my lace up shoes then I get out my Control Journal and
start down my list to see what I have left out. Most of the time I
have forgotten to eat all day and drink my water. So I make sure I
eat something and drink some water.

6. At this point, I use my timer, because my home has probably gotten
more than 15 minutes worth of messy and it is time to attack my
hotspots.

7. I work for 15 minutes and then I rest for 15 minutes. After about
an hour of this my home is back in shape and I am feeling better
about me.

So do you see just how easy it is to start over with your day! You
don't have to beat yourself up or go hide under the covers: All you
have to do is start your Morning Routine over again. Don't look at it
as if you are behind! Just jump in and get started.

Are you ready to Jump in and get started today?

FlyLady

P.S. No more excuses; Now set your timer! DING!!!

Brilliant.

Because I Want it All or Nothing at All

I'm an all or nothing kind of girl.

When it comes to...everything.

I listen to a cd over and over and over and over until it is burned in my head, put it away, and forget about it for months, even years.

Even if I'm full and my stomach says "don't do it", I HAVE to finish that whole dang candy bar. (Obviously, this one gets me in a lot of trouble).

We're going to have kids? Okay. Let's hurry and get them all here and then be done.

Cleaning? Can't just clean one room. Let's spring clean the whole house.

If I start a book, life stops until the book is consumed.

You can bet if I don't blog on a Monday or Tuesday, it ain't gonna happen the rest of the week either, even if I have the time on a Wednesday. If I have enough time I'll first write a post for Monday. Then Tuesday. THEN I'll write for Wednesday.

Get the picture?

And here I am. I made it here on a Monday. And I have everything in the world to say and nothing to say all at the same time.

Much randomness to follow.

Cee turned two months yesterday. She celebrated by sleeping an entire 7 hours straight. Her kind of partying scares me. When I woke up at 7:42 am and realized I had been wholly unconscious since 1 am, I lit from my bed and rushed to her crib to make sure she was still breathing (When is that fear ever going to subside? I still do that with my six year old if he sleeps longer than usual.)




I decided it was high time I get my life back in order. This morning I woke up at 5 am, fed the baby, and began my day with a bang. Writing, dishes, prayers, scripture study, eating healthy, drinking tons of water, peeing tons of pee, kid stuff, more kid stuff, more not-kid stuff. By 3 pm I regretted that early morning ambitious decision. I can hardly see straight right now.

In my go-get-'em condition today, I called up DiSH Network and canceled our satellite service. Permanently. They did their best to try to convince me otherwise(How many times can one girl say "No thanks!"?), but when they get down to it, they get down to it. The service was shut-off before the guy even said goodbye. Woah. I confess...It hurts a bit. Now who's going to entertain my kids when I need to get anything done?

Dee started piano lessons on Saturday. Today was his first day of practice. By the end of it, I was ready to quit. Him too. I kept it together though. Still, after our practice session, I found him laying on his bed, sobbing. I tried to regather my patience about me and be the loving patient mother he needed me to be. When I asked what was wrong he said, "It's so much harder than I thought". I almost started crying too. Because I'm feeling all sorts of philosophical about life today. True that, Dee. True that.

Trying to rouse the self-esteem of my little man I asked him what made him happy. "Going to the theater" was his immediate response. Not really what I was going for, but okay. Let's try another one. I asked him what made him excited. "Going to a bigger theater!"

In my all or nothing posting (meaning NOTHING) I didn't post about this little goodie that I won from Mamarazzi's Etsy Giveaway about 437 years ago. What an ungrateful girl am I! I won it before Cee made her appearance and asked if I could wait to cash in on it until after she was born and I had a name to put on the "lovey" and burp cloth.



Super precious, right? (Tell me again why I try to keep my kids' names secret on here?) Thank you so much Mamarazzi! You rock my blogosphere! And thank you to Carrie at My Lil Luv Bug Boutique! You do gorgeous work!

I stumbled upon this blog today. A young mom of four boys living on an air force base in Japan blogs about what it's like to live in the after effects of an earthquake and tsunami. Very touching and yet educational all at the same time. Make sure you read this post because everybody needs a good cry sometimes.

Since we moved to this house (and yes I keep meaning to post pics. I just never seem to be able to keep all the rooms clean enough at one point in time to run around and take pictures. All or nothing...I'm tellin' ya'...) I have this gorgeous, spacious, ridiculously long storage room to fill and no excuses left to not do food storage and emergency preparedness. Dangit.


My little brother gets home from Argentina in 23 sleeps. I haven't seen him since Christmas 2008. I can't wait!

I have been planning on exercising all day. "Planning on" is quickly turning into "thinking about it" which is most certain to dissolve into "maybe tomorrow". Ugh.

And if I don't exercise today, you know what that means for the rest of the week...

Vlog, She Spoke

So. It has come to this.

Vlogging.

I can't believe I did it, but I was having so much fun watching everybody elses vlogs that I simply couldn't resist.

Enjoy...even with all the typical "umms", that blasted double chin, and my new found inability to look a camera straight in the eye.



Shall we make this a monthly thing thanks to Mamarazzi and Seriously Shawn?



I believe we shall.