Golden Moment #3

I quietly peeked around the corner into my son's room and watched for a moment as he blissfully played with his choo choo trains. I decided to take advantage of this rare moment of quiet, happy, independent play and pick up a favorite book.  

I'm all snuggled up on the rocking chair, and almost two chapters into "What color is your slip cover" by Denny Daikler, when Scotty came into the family room to make sure he knew where mommy was. Then he returned to his room, I assumed to continue playing with his beloved trains, but he came back out just a moment later plopped himself down on the couch and started reading out loud one of his favorite books "Go, Dog. Go!" When I looked over at him so proudly reading to himself, my heart fluttered.

You know that feeling? When you see something so beautiful you actually have that physical reaction within your chest, like the light-switch just turned on and now you are glowing from the inside. It was more than just seeing my son's developing love of books, hearing his little toddler voice calling all the dogs "Choo choos, and Thomas" or his sweet mimicking of my activity of choice. It was an image of my own mother, and how many countless times I spied her snuggled up on a chair while laundry was drying, dinner was baking, she was nursing a baby, or taking a well deserved break, with a book in hand. It was a memory of sitting down with a book of my own next to her, just to be near her as she read. Hundreds of books she read aloud to me and my siblings, "Stewart Little" "The Christmas Box" American Girls series, picture books, magazines and scriptures.

A love of not just being entertained by the written word, but learning from it, letting her mind delight in it's complexities, it's perspectives, it's call to become something greater today than you were yesterday, and it's ability to create strong lasting relationships and emotional connection when shared.

So I suppose, my golden moment today was a book. But like all books, was so much more than meets the eye.

What is your favorite book? Do you have a special memory centered around reading, you cherish?

-DD

Golden moment #2 Surprise lunch date

An unexpected run in with the man of my dreams!

I spent this morning running some errands on base. As I left the Nex (A great big Target like store) I ran into one of Josh's co-workers who told me my husband was eating lunch right next door at the Subway! So Scotty and I went in a gave daddy a big surprise hug while he was ordering his sandwich. He was so happy to see us! We all shared a nice lunch together with Josh and a few of his friends from work. Scotty gave daddy lots of little smiley face stickers he'd bought at the Nex during our shopping trip. Daddy wore them all very happily on his hand.

How lucky, to see my husband in the middle of the day! And what a special moment for Scotty, he was so happy to see "Da-das" unexpectedly! It was a day of perfect timing! A providential golden moment!

Did you have a golden moment today? Or are you still waiting to have yours? Keep your eye out and you'll find it! Leave me a comment once you've found it, I'd love to know what it was!

DD

Strawberry Shortcake

yellow cake

fresh cream

strawberries

sweet dream

Whether I be

young or old

to eat this treat

is just pure gold

sheer delight

make no mistake,

strawberry

cream

and cake

Golden moment number 1, my mom cooked a wonderful meal for me and my family tonight and finished it off with one of my all time favorite desserts, strawberry shortcake! Just delightful! Isn't strawberry shortcake divine? 

How many of you out there are also strawberry shortcake fans? Ahh, and remember the cartoon? Now that was good children's entertainment!

Golden Birthday

I turned 28 on May 28th today. It was my golden birthday. In honor of this special occurrence, I've decided that this day forward will be my golden year. A year full of golden moments, a golden moment everyday. So, for the next year, until May 28th 2012, I will look for and post one golden moment everyday. 365 days of gold. A treasury of joy. My golden moment today?  Realizing I have more gifts then I could ever count, but here are 28, my new favorite number for this year.

1) The love of a good man
2) A beautiful child
3) A happy marriage
4) A wonderful family
5) Dear friends
6) A Disney Princess singing voice (Birds actually do chirp when I sing with the window open)
7) My Savior, Jesus Christ
8) A lovely home to live in
9) Good books to read
10) Sisters
11) Scrapbooks
12) Lovely clothes I'm excited to wear everyday hanging up in my closet
13) Cherry blossom trees in the spring time
14) Pink roses
15) Romantic getaways
16) Bubble baths
17) Costume Jewelry
18) Good health
19) A car to drive
20) The color peach
21) Fabric
22) Watercolors
23) Strawberries
24) Imagination
25) Music
26) Things that sparkle!
27) Plumeria Flowers
28) Just being happy!

When was your golden birthday? Did you do something special to commemorate it, or did you not notice it at all? Is your golden birthday still on the horizon?

Until next time,
The birthday diva

Happy Mother's Day

                                                                     Everything I am

                                                                     All I come to be

                                                                     I owe to one who's heart,

                                                                     With every beat

                                                                     Loves me

                                                                     I live my life each day

                                                                     With a vision pure and clear

                                                                     Of who I want to be,

                                                                     It is you, my mother dear.

Here comes the sun!

Yesterday I wrote an entry about my not so stellar day. If you read it you will remember that I chose seven things to do in three hours to help cheer myself up. The list contained the following activities:

7-Take a shower while listening to "What do the simple folks do" from Camelot. I will probably also listen to "Lusty month of May" because it is May after all!
5-wear something cute with a pair of white pants
4-light a candle at the dinner table
3-Drive to the store and buy flowers for the table with grocery money. Yeah. I'm gonna do it.
2-Stand outside and breathe fresh air for 1 minute
1-Drink a glass of water

I then promised to follow up on how those activities effected my day and if it actually worked to cheer me up. This is what happened.

"What do the simple folks doooooo? TO help them escape when they're bluuuuuuuue?" Julie Andrews and I sang our hearts out as I ran the water to my hot shower. Camelot is a sure fire pick me up, how can anyone listen to that fantastic music and not feel great!? I was determined to shift my thoughts and get myself in a better mood. I'd wallowed all day, and quite frankly, it was getting dull. 

After my shower I walked out to the family room to check on my three year old, who, when I'd started my shower was happily watching "Thomas the tank engine" and snacking on some orange slices. This scenario must have quickly changed once he realized I was no longer in the same room as he was, and he decided to explore the kitchen.

With undaunted determination he traversed the iron baby gate, maneuvered his way on top of the counter climbed over to the sink and found a marvelous waterfall. In celebration of his great discovery he thought it would be only fitting to take a swim, however the pool of a sink was not enough to satisfy his longing for a cool plunge. After all, traversing wild terrain in search of waterfalls is hard work. So with the ingenuity and cunning of a true explorer he pulled the adjustable faucet far out beyond the reach of the sink and over the counter's ledge. Then with a touch of his hand declared the kitchen floors become a great ocean. And so it was done.  

Scott was not permitted to swim. He was sent to his room, while I sopped up an ocean.

Determined to be happy, I continued down my list. Donning my favorite pair of white pants a beautiful peach shirt and threw a matching ribbon in my hair. Feeling very much like the embodiment of spring I thought it would be a grand time to take my sojourn to the grocery store and buy myself some flowers to help improve my mood. Scott, however, was still very angry, harboring deep resentment over the  swim in that great ocean I had denied him. I did not discover this until we reached our destination.

Upon stepping foot in the store such a thunder storm of rage emerged from this adorable little curly headed tot I was sure I'd be swept off in a tornado of toddler tantrum. I quickly realized this was no time to buy flowers and headed straight back out the door. I wrangled him into the car despite the flailing arms and kicking legs. However, getting the car door shut, keeping it shut while pulling out of our parking space, and staying seated in his car seat all proved to be very challenging to my son as he continued to scream and cry allllllllll the way home.

My white pants did not fair this experience well.

Once home again, I decided it would be a perfect time to take the one minute breath of fresh air. So Scotty was coerced into staying indoors while I stood outside the front door and inhaled oxygen. 

I might have taken more than one minute. 

When I walked back in the house Scotty was sitting on the floor looking very put out. I scooped him up and gave him a hug and suggested we have a snack. To which he very pleasantly requested an orange (My child eats LOTS of oranges) and while he gobbled down his orange I sipped on a glass of water. 

Now all that was left on my list was to light a candle over dinner with my husband. The moment I heard Josh's car door shut outside our front door,  I rushed out to greet him and spew the roller coaster of a day I'd had. 

But, I stopped short seeing in an instant that his day had been far, FAR worse than my own.

My list changed in a moment.

1-Give Josh a BIG hug

2-Rub Josh's feet

3-Let him take a nap

4-Get dinner on

5-Run to the store and buy ingredients for Josh's favorite dessert

6-Get Scotty to bed nice and early

7-Cuddle in front of the fireplace

I didn't light my candle that night over dinner, but the sun came out for both our rainy days. 

And I was so happy.

Ever had one of "those" days?

I'm having one of those days.

Bad day, no good reason. Just sad and I don't know why. Feeling, unmotivated, lethargic and a lot like I'm trying to walk to Baskin Robbin's on a treadmill. Pondering the purpose of my existence and drawing a  ___________. Yeah. Blank.

So, I've spent the better part of my day reading random blogs.
Writing a blog far too depressing to post, so I deleted it.
Sitting in front of the heater.
Taking a nap.
Sitting in front of the heater again.
Taking another nap.
Trying to muster the motivation, the thought, the will, to do, well, just about ANYTHING.
(All the thought mustering happened while sitting in front of the heater of course.)

SO I did what any 21st century depressed homemaker would do, I Googled "How to cheer yourself up." Happily I didn't even have to finished the sentence before the little Google bar filled it in for me, and the thought of that search being common enough to fill in the blank for me, sort of cheered me up and helped me feel not so alone, or stupid for feeling, well....stupid.

I have decided to do 7 things in the next 3 hours to cheer myself. Those numbers feel right to me at any rate. These art the 7 things I'm going to do. Hopefully, I'll be feeling back to my chipper" let's change the world, clean our house, sing a song, play with the kiddos and offer life changing advice to people I love" in no time!

7-Take a shower while listening to "What do the simple folks do" from Camelot. I will probably also listen to "Lusty month of May" because it is May after all.
6-put a ribbon in my hair
5-wear something cute with a pair of white pants
4-light a candle during dinner with my husband
3-Drive to the store and buy flowers for the table with grocery money. Yeah. I'm gonna do it.
2-Stand outside and breathe fresh air for 1 minute
1-Drink a glass of water

Okay...there's my plan. I'll get back to you on how well it worked!
In the meantime send me a note. Let me know what you do to cheer yourself up when you are down.