Thoughts

The Real Simple Daily Thoughts that I used to love every single time have gotten kind of lame. But recently, they are starting to pick up the pace in the emails and in the magazine!

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." - Bernarnd Meltzer

"There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of the briefest, than in all the alcohol ever distilled." - Edward Verrall Lucas

"Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does - except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place." - Abigail Van Buren

PS - I am hardcore struggling with my picture taking/editing abilities. I try really hard to take pictures of Lila on the 13th each month for the new header just because I think it's fun. I know these are grainy and maybe even weird looking. I think I need more classes because recently I am just getting frustrated. Anyway, these will have to do...she makes them gorgeous anyway ;-)

I am so damn smart

"With time, women gain weight because we accumulate so much information & wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy , we are enormously cultured, educated & happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, Good Grief...look how smart I am..."


I have no clue who wrote this, but I stole it from a friend's facebook status and it is now my own personal motto. I feel like eight million times a day I am comparing myself, feeling bad about myself, and all out chastising myself about my weight and/or how I look that day. I do not want this to be the example for my daughter. A lot of women say they feel badly about how they look after giving birth. I can honestly say, while it didn't help, I felt this way before. Therefore, that can't really be the excuse. 


So, I am going to embrace this hysterically perfect nugget of wisdom because at the end of the day my husband thinks I'm hot, and he's the only one that matters anyway. :-)

Thoughts

There were a string of daily thoughts by Real Simple that I posted about for a while there until I began to feel like I was overdoing it.  They were so good and then they kind of started to suck. I am a words person. I love being uplifted by a phrase or a song. Sometimes I have to seek out the inspiration, and sometimes it falls in my lap. Well, this week has been rough. Seth's job is making me want to pull my hair out so the posts have been a little thin this week. In the process, the really amazing daily thoughts have piled up and I need to address them all because they have gotten me through the week:

1) "Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

This house drives me crazy. I have such a love, hate relationship with it. We started our family here. We have put a lot of ourselves into it, and we continue to do that now. That is where the hate comes in. I hate that everything seems dirty and old and hard to keep up with. Today, the shelf that holds hanging clothes in our laundry room just fell off the wall. Thank God Lila was taking a nap. I got so frustrated and angry because it seems like things like that are constantly happening. Then I think, the house doesn't matter. It never has and never should. What matters is that we have a home to share the love in.

2) "A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world." - Lois Wyse

I have said it before and it has to be said again. I feel so incredibly lucky for the friends I am blessed to have. Seth will of course be the number one person in my life for the rest of my life. But, there is so much to be said for the women that often get me through the day. You are the key to my sanity in a totally insane world and I cannot thank you enough.

3) "If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep." - Dale Carnegie

This hasn't been an issue for me in a long time. The extreme ironic stress reliever of motherhood is that nine times out of ten, when your head hits the pillow there isn't an ounce of delay in falling asleep. In fact, I find myself smiling at the how motherhood has pretty much cured my insomnia. BUT, every once in a while I still feel the worry set in and this week that has really been the case. I worry about my husband and how he works himself to death. I worry about my students and how they will do on the stupidest test ever created. I worry about the time I spend cleaning and cooking instead of playing with my fabulous little one. But the more you read the more evident it is that stressing makes things worse. So I actually did this one night this week. I was so tired but so stressed that I couldn't go to sleep. I got up, walked around my silent house, and just really appreciated the peace and calmness that my family was feeling in their beds. This daily thought made me feel like it just takes a little stroll around the house at 1 am to get your thoughts in order.

She's a professional

I'm behind on my Real Simple daily thoughts so today's post is jam packed with two that just happen to totally fit me:

"I always cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food." - W.C. Fields

Wait, I would have to cook a lot to be able to even start a phrase with "I always cook...". Whatever. I like to cook. I just suck at it. Wait, maybe it's the wine and not my cooking. Nevermind.

"All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy". - Spike Milligan

Alright so, I hesitated with this one because I am happy. I am incredibly happy actually. BUT, winning the lottery would totally rock.

On an unrelated and funny note, I have a student that is a bit of a struggler. I try really hard to praise him as much as possible, especially when he does well on something he hates. Let's just say motivation isn't his strongest attribute. So I'm doing my best song and dance about something he turned in and he stands there, quite stoic, and simply says "I'm a professional". He then takes his paper and heads back to to his desk. I was stunned. What do you say? What do you do when you have thrown a mini-party for something and the response is so matter of fact and unemotional? So I laughed hysterically in my head and went on about my business. The best advice I have ever been given about being a teacher is to "keep the inner voice in". It's so hard but so necessary. Had I laughed at him out loud he would have felt silly for even listening and responding to my praise. Suddenly, so many situations fit the phrase he coined.

"She's a professional" (Avocado anyone?)