Real or Fake

Last week one of my favorite bloggers decided to quit. I'm so very sad about this news as hers was one I really looked forward to reading. Seriously So Blessed, is a blog about a perfect woman living in Utah and raising her twins, she is LDS and her husband is perfect too. She was always telling stories about how wonderful her twins are, and how great her life is and how she feels bad for people who aren't as righteous and wonderful as she is. But it was all fake, but every story she told you could think of someone who really had done or said some of the things she blogged about. I'm not sure why she quit, we all keep hoping it isn't really true, but I will miss her as she was often a reality check for me.



Another blog I love to read is Soul Mama. Her blog is very real and that is why I love it. She is a Author, photographer, craft er, and mom, living in Maine. She and her family recently moved into a 200 year old farm house. The blog documents this family who are not farmers, but are trying their hand at it, as they figure things out, renovate their house, and raise their family. She is a little on the hippy-dippy side for me. She is very 'green' which is great, she makes her own bread, home schools her children, and makes or thrifts most the their clothes. I think these are all great things, but I could not keep up the life she leads. The thing I like about her blog is that you get the feeling that she does these things because this is the way she is, she doesn't think every one should be like her and she rarely comes across as preachy. You can tell she enjoys life and her children and husband, but she doesn't feel the need to gush about it and tell every one how lucky and how blessed she is every post.



There was recently an article on Salon.com written by a feminist atheist, who talked about how she is addicted to reading Mormon Mommy blogs. She says she likes to read about how their lives are simple and they are all so happy. I thought it was interesting because I read so many blogs that make me think 'these people are trying way too hard to 'look' perfect'. My life is pretty good, and since I have never been much of a scrapbook er, this is a great way to document our lives, but I try hard not to come off as sounding like everyone should be just like me, or that I think I am the worlds best mother. The past few years I have tried hard to be real, I feel like I spent a lot of years trying to please every one and to have people like me and I didn't like that person. I've been trying to be 'authentic' this past year and have made some big changes. I needed to be true to myself, and I'm starting to like me better now too. I hope you will all like the real me better too.

Aquarium

We had an extra long weekend so we decided to go to the aquarium.
Daddy came with us this time.

It was a very fun afternoon.

A project

I decided that the cure to my winter blues was to find a project. I mentioned it to Jon and he agreed. The only problem is that post-Christmas, funds are a little low. So we decided to update our down stairs bathroom. It has been several years since we did this bathroom, and it really needed a paint job and a new look.

Here is the before picture.I really liked how I had it done up

And this is the new and improved bathroom. We did paint it though you can't really tell from the pictures. It was white before and we had some paint left from when we painted our house a few years ago, but decided we didn't like the color. It's a nice taupe now, much warmer.

I changed the butterfly babies for pictures of wildflowers that I've taken over the years on our trips. I'm really happy about how it turned out.

January Blues

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to look through the rooms of our lives.....not looking for flaws, but for potential.~Ellen Goodman

A friend of mine recently posted this on her Facebook status. And I have been giving it a lot of thought. I really hate January. No matter how prepared I am for the post-Christmas let down, January still leaves me feeling down in the dumps. For a month we are bombarded with exercise and diet commercials, and organization tips. Try as I might, I will never be skinny and my house will always be messy. I don't always make resolutions, but one year I did make the resolution to 'Listen more.' It was one I actually kept and I learned a lot that year. I've been trying to decide if I should try one this year and after reading my friend's post, I think I will.

So I have decided to try to be more social. I'm sure anyone who knows me just laughed at reading this, thinking that I already am a social person, and that is true, sort of. I do love a good chat and am happy to have my sister and my good friend Jill to indulge me in these chats, but when it comes to going out or having people over, we are kind of hermits. I love nothing more than to spend my weekends curled up on the couch in jammies with my honey, so we really don't go out much and we rarely go out with other couples. Twice last year we were invited to dinner at friends houses, and went but never returned the favor. And just recently a friend invited us to a get together with some people I'd love to meet, but when she told us it was a bit of a drive I immediately thought I don't want to drive that far. So my resolution is to get out more. I have the potential to make new friends and hopefully become closer to friends I already have.

Playlist

I am probably way behind the times here, but I have just made an amazing discovery. Pandora Radio. Really it is amazing. For those of you even farther behind than me, it's an internet radio station where you enter in what music or artist you like and then they play music from that person and other music similar to it. Brilliant! Since making this amazing discovery I almost (almost) look forward to doing the dishes. It's great. So far I love my Glee station, but when I get sick of show tunes and Journey, then I switch it to my James Taylor station, who knew I was such a fan of 70's classic rock.
And.........
On the subject of music. In my family we like to make each other mixed Cd's. My sister was telling me about a mix Cd's she recently got and it was so depressing. This got me thinking about what my 2010 mix would be. My taste in music runs a few years behind and tends to include tiny bopper music, as I am forced to listen to Radio Disney, but here are some songs that I have liked this year.

Hey Soul Sister, Train (I know, Please don't hate me)
Lucky, Jason Mraz, Colbie Caillat
Fire Flies, Owl City
Smiling Face, James Taylor
Losing My Religion, REM
My Life, Billy Joel
Defying Gravity, Wicked
Seasons of Love, Rent
I Could Not Ask For More, Sara Evans
Love Story, Taylor Swift (Remember I have an 8 year old daughter)

So what would your 2010 playlist be? Really? I want to know!

New Years

The best part about this time of year, is spending so much time with our family. This past week we have gotten to do some fun things, the best by far was bowling.


This was the first time we've ever taken the kids bowling. We play Wii bowling all the time so it was fun to go see the kids bowl in real life.

My brother is such a cute daddy and Jack is such cute little boy.

Carly tied to bowl the right way a few times but eventually would just sit down and give the ball a good push.

Bri was actually pretty good.

Friday night we all got together for New Years. Grandma had made all the kids sweaters for Christmas but hadn't quite finished them in time so the kids got them for new years.

Then the mom's and dad's left and the kids and grandma slept over.

We did a count down early but the kids all stayed up till midnight anyway. We had a very happy new year and we hope you do to.