Raise a cake...to my MOM

Yesterday was my mother's birthday...so I promised to commemorate the occasion in blog lol!

Let me start by saying, I am a big jerk. I don't know why, or how I got that way but I am. My mom has put up with my jerkiness my whole life. You know how everyone usually dreads the day they become their parents? I can't wait for that day to come! I wish I could be half the mother my mother was/is.

If you know me in real life you have, or will eventually, hear me talking about my dark-place... I'm not crazy evil or something...just dark. Unfortunately it's usually mom who has to go find me, when I run away to my dark place. I am a nightmare to reconcile...that's no joke. She takes the lumps though, and carries me all the way out...then takes me out for lunch or a smoothie <3

Thank you mom, for always finding me...I love you! 

Here is a list of my favorite things about my mom:

She never throws mistakes in my face (all 47 million of them)
She always buys me clothes I would never buy for myself, but then I end up loving
She spoils my girls, and my Joe
To say she is passionate is an understatement!
She giggles at me, when most people resort to yelling
If you are ever in need of being adopted, she will do so...no questions asked
She makes me better
AND MANY MORE THINGS!

Maybe we should all pretend it's Mother's Day and call our moms to show some love :-)

All That You Want

I can have it all...

    Maybe just not all at the same time. What gives you the strength to get up in the morning? What makes you fight, cry, and sacrifice it all? Naturally I should say my children...but then what do I tell my children they should fight for? 

     I want the house, the sweet car, and the crazy great income...but what is all that once I die? How many other people have achieved as much? Hundreds of millions surely. I want to leave the world a better place than I found it. The environment is important...but a starving child (or adult even) is more important. I want to teach my children what it means to live, and love life. 

    This may or may not come as a surprise to you, my dear reader...but I spent most of my life wishing I was dead. I only had a dream...no vision. I knew what I wanted to become, but had no practical way to get there. I am fighting now...not just hoping and dreaming...but fighting. For me, that's what it takes. I seem to have been born to fight. I lost that somewhere along the way, but I think I am finding it now...the fight! I want to live, and I want to teach my children to live...death is too easy. To die, before you have even loved enough to have lossed...no freaking way!

The Stress Test: Poll Results

Last week I made a poll asking you to tell me how you handle stress. The results are in, and as follows...

4 votes for Eating Chocolate  3 votes for Yelling at Someone Nearby  1 vote for Getting Drunk  4 votes for Going to Be Alone Somewhere.

Obviously some of us handle stress by self medication, or verbal tension release. I have used each of these vices at one point or another...or together...to cope with whatever was going on around me. My newest mechanism was the "go be alone" thing...I never cared to be alone in my life! Until I became a mother that is. From the pregnancy I began my journey to hermitville...population: me! I thought it was a good thing because I had never been able to be alone before, and it probably was good for a while. The problem with hermitville is that you learn how to rely on yourself, to the degree that you don't need anyone else.

I am pretty much designed to need and be needed, but I am not used to it anymore or something. Which led to more stress LOL.... and even depression :(.  But now here I am, being all self-helpy and finding my way back into balance! Yeah I'm a rockstar ROFL...just kidding! I have prayed a lot for peace, balance, unity in my environment...and I think my prayers are being systematically answered right now. It seems to have started when little Con got sick. Crazy, that was one of the more difficult times of my life...and it kick-started one of the most healing seasons for me. Amazing!

Stress is a really big deal, and apparently bad for your health, and something I deal with a lot. I asked my [small] number of readers so we can all know where we stand on the issue. I did some research and here are the most fun facts about stress for your reading pleasure:

1. More than half of all deaths between the ages of 1 and 65 result from stressful lifestyles.- U.S. Center for Disease Control
2. Research shows that regular workouts lift depression, banish stress and sharpen the mind. - American Health Magazine
3. Annually, over $800 million dollars are spent on "anti-anxiety pills". The U.S. accounts for 5% of the world's population and consumes 33% of the pills.-Neurogen
4. More people visit doctors for anxiety than for colds, and anxiety is now more common than depression. Anxiety is a predisposing factor to major depression and to suicide attempts. All of these facts came from http://www.stressless.com

This Weeks Poll Question is in 2 Parts: 1.)Who manages the $money$ in your house? 2.) How well does the money get managed?