Because there's not time for more I'll leave you with pics that say it all. 90 day challenge has ensued, we have our 5 team members, and as a team leader that has much of my attention right now. Post on that to follow.
When asked why in the world his loving brother wrote it like that on his arm, the answer..."So he could look at it and read it the right way!" Made me laugh. The arm on the left has "Navy Seal" "tattooed" on it with only the "AL" visible.
The non conformist
After dinner, before bedtime, down time. Letting off the last of the day's energy.
They constantly ask how I do it...shift husband, homeschooling, online classes, a business, home management, lots and lots of young kids, and many other irons in the fire. And....it just looks a lot like this most days. Kids schooling is done. This would be afternoon quiet...in pajama pants...after already waking up at 4:30 and working from 5-8am. Time management is key and overcoming setbacks and frustrations many, many times throughout the day is just part of it. But the reward...the reward and gratification are unlike anything I have ever tasted. If we don't have a van to go places I'm at least going to spend my time constructively working for one. I have a vision. I have a goal. And I fully intend to get there.
"Discipline's more valuable than IQ. It's not the smartest who wins. It's the hardest working, most dedicated, and toughest."
I told them to get the dead bird off the property. That's not exactly what I had in mind.
That look!!! She cracks me up.
Morning coffee view, meditation, and some vision board focus.
Look who can climb these days.
And she's a little bit proud of it.
And she's off! 8 days before her birthday she decided it was time to walk.
7:00 am morning entertainment. I'm so thankful for a great landlady. Kids don't mind too much either. Every room with a view.
Love, love, love this on so many levels. It is not a crime or sin to take personal responsibility. And it is everything we have learned over the course of the past however many years of life we have lived. If only everyone could embrace the depth of truth this carries. In it lies passion, purpose, fulfillment, and so much joy. So many people walk around as victims, blaming their woes on all that they can't control.....from actions of other people to sicknesses to circumstances to attitudes. It's apparent by the pages of this blog and a bit ...or a lot....humbling to have to say that I was one of the worst. I was a victim. I played a victim for many years. So grateful for all the lessons taught and to be coming into this part of life that is fulfilled, knowing what it is to love on a level that runs deeper than I'd ever imagined, to fully realize that contentment, passion, purpose, and happiness...absolute inner joy and a life full of abundant laughter...lies in taking responsibility...fully coming into self. To know what it is to live empowered and a truly charged life. It is all that enables us to live to our highest potential....to fully live out all that we were birthed to be. To live humbly yet live powerfully in all that I do. It is everything I hope our children grasp at young ages so that they are spared years wandering and placing blame, casting judgment, wasting away precious years seeking to condemn others in an effort to bury their own insecurities. I have learned that is an impossible feat when there is a complete inability to take responsibility. Live your fullest life. This life is not just a waiting game to get to heaven or an afterlife. This life was meant to be embraced, filled with passion, life, purpose, emotion. We were created to live and live fully. What is your ambition, your goal, your aim? What were you created to do and be? What is the passion that drives you? That tiny little flicker, no longer even detectable to the human eye because the world and people have suffocated it, attempted to blow it out, unleashed Niagara Falls on it...told you it's impossible for so many years you barely even remember what it was that excited you. That spark can be revived....and your life transformed. And it starts with responsibility.
When we are more personally responsible for our own lives, life blooms. A magic enters our life, not just the magic of confidence and certainty in who we are, but a sense of total truth with what life is supposed to be for ourselves.
And that first thing that we are personally responsible for is our aim, our ambition, our desire, our goal, our dream.
Successful people look out there and say, “What is it that I desire of my life?” They go for it. They’ve set an intention. They’ve set a direction for who they are and where they’re going and what is meaningful to them, who they want to have along with them. Their aim is extraordinarily tight. They really do see where they’re going and what they want. They don’t always know the full picture, they just know, I want to be like this… I want to do things like this. They start along that path.
Because they’re following their own path, even if they don’t know where exactly it goes, they’re living the adventurous life. They’re entering a new phase of their life where they truly feel that this journey is their own versus just being carried along by their parents, their professors or their peers or their co-workers. It’s their own - they have their own aim in life.
I think we have to take control of that. I think, tonight would be a good time for you to sit down and say,
"Okay, what is it I want in the major areas of my life? What is it I truly have aim and ambition for in my work life, in my relationships, in my sense of spiritual and emotional self? In my physical health and vitality? In my overall direction in life?”
What do you want next week to be about? If you don’t know than you are “aimless”, and when you’re aimless it’s pretty easy to feel pretty lost. It’s like you kind of wander around in the world, that’s a big full wilderness. That’s why in Montana we always say, “The time to have the map is before you enter the woods.”
The world is a big thicket of crazy throngs of people who have all their wants and wills, and if you don’t have your own direction, if you have not set your own life agenda, they will set one for you. So you have to direct your own aim.
Sweet girl that needs her glasses on! But she's still pretty cute.
the road home.
So yeah. The background. Lovely. It got cleaned up. But it's a sweet pic.
Hangin' out while daddy rolls.
When you work from home....your coworkers and your office view.
How many kids does it take to change a smoke alarm battery? You know we're all sick of the beeping when they go to these lengths.
Huge success experience on the home front. He caught a falling pitcher of tea that had just been poured from its boiling state. It splashed across entire right side of face leaving mostly first degree burns and a few small places of second degree. It hit around his mouth, up his face, and all around his closed eye. Due to the fact it involved his eye applying peppermint was not an option. Lavender and frankincense were quickly applied to entire area and lavender to bottoms of both feet and back of neck to calm him down, as he was quite inconsolable. He settled and was back to a state of being able to reason and talk about what happened about 15 minutes after applying. 1st pic was taken right after applying lavender, he had calmed down and was a close up so daddy, who was on shift, could take a look at the extent of it. 2nd was taken about an hour later, and 3rd was that night before bed. He had no pain by 2nd pic, which is pretty unheard of given the extent of what happened. Swelling was minimal and short lived. Blisters were almost completely healed by bedtime. Most surprising was his lack of pain. We've been through burns before and they hurt for DAYS. He slept through the night. With other burns we have experienced before due to hands touching hot oven racks or reaching up, touching hot burners, or sitting on a hot lawn mower engine we are usually up multiple times a night with lots of tears. Tears that actually go on for about 2 weeks. We have never had a burn respond this well to any OTC stuff. I wish we'd known this for all the stuff we've dealt with before. I love happy, smily, pain free kids.
Next morning!
This is only the 30th hummingbird he's caught in his entire life. We've deemed him the bird whisperer.
Taking him to work. Pretty amazing stuff. Early morning quiet, coffee, soft conversation, million dollar view.
Total Pinterest shift night fail. It kept us laughing though.
Probably won't be doing that one again.
Row, row, row your boat....while you play Call of Duty.
June 1st. We're not in Texas anymore!
As homesick as I still can get...it's not on these days.
I am in love and continue to be amazed. Baby on top is our wild, feral, red headed man. We were on about the 68th tantrum of the day. I had him lay down for a nap, in which he continued by general obstinance and total refusal to be still long enough to allow himself to go to sleep. I just reached for whatever I could think of quickest, which ended up being lavender, wild orange, vetiver, and serenity. Applied vetiver and serenity to back of his neck and lavender to bottom of one foot, wild orange to the other. Pretty quickly, calm settled in...and 5 minutes later.....this! Twin on bottom was being cool so just had some lavender rubbed on his feet since he wanted oils too. he was asleep shortly after the first one. And these are the 3 year olds that never.....ever.....take naps. 3 entire hours of quiet that allowed me time to accomplish waiting projects.
Work buddy.
Summer in paradise.
Bike trails they've been working on since we moved. It's finally nearing completion on the opposite end of the property.
Tucked away from the world.
Waiting for their ride to the Y for the first outdoor swim day!
The tunnel home...in all of its green canopied bliss.
Entering in. I stand in awe at the beauty and the privacy we've been given in our little place of peace.
Watching him bale.
That plan just didn't go so well.
The new foster puppy. She refused to take her antibiotics and pain meds after being spayed. Homemade eczema/diaper ointment/everything cream. 1/2 c virgin coconut oil, 10 drops each frankincense, lavender, and melaleuca. OnGuard rolled on paw pads to keep infection at bay. She healed perfectly...with barely a scar! Vet was impressed....again! :)
Education is paramount. Know your options. After being threatened by our Dr. with two counts of child endangerment for not consenting to a mandatory c-section at 38 weeks for the birth of our first set of twins, due to being "dangerously overdue" and a breech baby, we began a life changing journey. I knew there was a different way.
Pregnant in America
Educate. Research. Do your homework. It's worth it.
"Who of us is mature enough for children until the children themselves arrive? One of the greatest values of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults." Peter DeVries
Definition of a Story
A story is the verbal form that most adequately conveys our actual, day-to-day, ordinary life - the way we live. Unfortunately, most of the attention we receive in contemporary society is indifferent to story; that is, to the way we actually live, our personal uniqueness. A story provides the diction and syntax that reveals the unique particular, the inner identity, and the intricate web of relationships that account for who we are - our life. Eugene Peterson
