LIFE IS IN MOTION

Nothing reminds me that life is in forward motion like my kids do. We just celebrated our youngest 1st birthday on Monday. I feel like it just crept up on me. I don't know where the time has gone. I admit that most of the time I still feel like I am in my early 20's! It must be all the working out, lol. As I continue to watch my children get older and learn new things I am reminded that I too am getting older. So much of my time right now goes into raising my kids that I forget about myself. I have some personal goals that I am striving to reach and I can't forget to work on them. I am constantly reminding myself to take time for me. I feel guilty when I tell them no or wait because I am working on things for myself but I realize that it's OK. I want my kids to know that life isn't always about them all the time and it's OK to consider others. It's very hard to instill this in them while living in this "instant gratification" fast paced generation. I often find myself getting so frustrated with having to wait just 1 to 2 minutes. When my Google doesn't ping to life the instant I push the button I will push it again or reopen it in a new window. It's no wonder I see my kids huff and puff when I tell them to wait, they see me do the same thing. I am striving to be a better person by finding a balance of considering others while not neglecting myself. Finding peace in an otherwise chaotic world.

ANXIETY

I have been feeling insane amounts of anxiety and worry lately. I am usually the "don't worry about it" person in my family. My husband isn't very flexible so has major melt downs when things go awry. However, I think we may have switched roles. I have been feeling like I am running out of time, for what I am not sure. Some of my anxiety comes from having 3 kids and a husband who's schedules are daunting. I am constantly managing my little empire to ensure things are running like a well oiled machine. Let me tell you this takes work when you live in Hawaii and everyone else is on 'aloha" time and not moving very fast. Plus I am somewhat of a freak about my baby daughters sleep schedule because with out naps, I fight an uphill battle until bed time. However, I hate this feeling so I have been in constant prayer about how to deal with this feeling. My prayers were answered while reading my daily devotional a few days ago. It read "Planning for tomorrow is time well spent; worrying about tomorrow is time wasted. Sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference. Careful planning is thinking ahead about goals, steps, and schedules, and trusting in God's guidance. When done well, planning can help alleviate worry. Worriers, by contrast are consumed by fear and find it difficult to trust God. Don't let worries about tomorrow affect your relationship with God today. Matthew 6:34" (Life Application Daily Devotional on You Version App). This was reminder that I can't control every little part of my life, that's God's job. I can however have a plan. It's no surprise that when you have a plan and things go a little off track your better able to recover and cope. Get a plan and Give the rest to God!

HONEY UPDATE

So I have been in the big island for 4 days now and I know I was going to keep you posted on my honey and cinnamon facials. I stopped after the 4th day because  it wasn't working. My face felt smoother but I had actually had a few more breakouts happen. What I learned from this experience was 1. I need to do a better job at keeping my body healthy, more water! 2. For the sake of my kids and more specifically my daughters I don't need to be putting so much emphasis on my looks. My break outs were causing me a lot of anxiety because I was getting so nervous about what I was going to look like in my pictures from out vacation (which I will post when I get back). So until the next skin emergency I plan to keep it simple.

DO YOU!

I typically hate the phrase "Do You" or when people say I am gonna "Do me" if your actually doing it you shouldn't have to make either of those statements. Part of growing up and maturing is expanding your mind through experiences. One of my favorite bloggers Scott Williams bigisthenewsmall.com, talks about being uncomfortable and not falling in love with sleep. You have to get up and do something in order to progress and move forward. My sister in-law recently sent me a link to some guy named Allen Stone www.allenstone.com. She is very intellectual and sends links often so I wasn't really in a hurry to check it out. However, something urged me forward and I clicked the link. I clicked on the play button and was instantly in shock! You see this long haired white guy with BC glasses (my husband calls these glasses birth control, they look similar to the ones issued at boot-camp to those who wear glasses), a knit  cap and a guitar I immediately thought grunge music for sure. He starts to sing a very soulful sound exudes from his voice and i just can't believe the person I am looking at is really singing. Allen Stone, is what the statement "Do You" means. Just because you want to sing R&B music doesn't mean you have to have the stereotypical look of your every day R&B singer. Our God is bigger than this world and can use you the way you are to make things happen. We aren't Garanimals (clothing made for kids with specific tags for tops and bottoms that ensure your kids match) we don't have to match or color in the lines. We just have to use what we have to do what we love and God will take care of the rest.  Make sure you DO YOU!

Sweet Honey Day 3

So I am on day 3 of the honey and cinnamon regimen. I still have blemishes but my skin is really soft in the areas where I have been applying it. However, my sole purpose of starting this treatment was to clear up my skin and blackheads so a clearer complexion so I will need to see better results if I plan to make this a regular beauty habit. I am going to continue it until we leave for our spring break vacation to the Big Island. My 9 year old son asked me yesterday what was on my face yesterday and when I told him "he said it was disturbing and weird" I never thought my son would think I was uncool but it's slowly happening. lol!

Beauty is skin deep

So lately I have suffered from some very unsightly acne. It's been so bad that my sweet 5year old daughter was very excited to tell me about proactive when she seen the commercial. She said mom you just use 2 white bottles and 1 blue one and it takes all you bumps away and makes you happy. On that note the advertisement for the proactive did a great job because that was exactly how my daughter felt for me. At first I wasn't super bothered by my acne but when she mentioned it, I became really self conscious about it and now I feel like everyone is staring at my very large bumps. So I've scoured Pinterest for a good natural remedy and found one that seemed easy enough. You combined honey and cinnamon to make a paste-like consistency and slather it on the affected area leave on for 15 min then rinse with luke-warm water. We leave for a one week vacation to the Big Island in 10 days so i'm going to try this concoction to see if it makes a difference. I've already did it today and my face smells good and is pretty soft so we will see as time goes on.

Misery loves company

So we have been living in Hawaii for a little over 3 years now and I have met quite a few people since I have been here. It's crazy living in Army housing (this is are first time ever to do so) because families are moving in and out at rapid pace. This is not something we normally experience as a Coast Guard family. We went home to Washington for the whole summer last year and when we returned, all but one family on our block were new. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. I was kind excited though because I was becoming desperate for more friends. The one really good friend I had moved away and I was back to square one at being a loner. The crazy thing is that this housing area easily has about 500+ duplex style houses. You would think I would have my pick of the crop for friends right? WRONG, no one comes out of their house, it's the craziest thing ever. I get up and run with my infant daughter every morning and I was sure I would meet some other moms along the way but that wasn't the case. I must admit that I am a pretty shy person until you get to meet me and I can be very selective in my friends but this was crazy. So I prayed that God would bless me with some good friends to hang with during the day. I was becoming really bored. Lo and behold a few months later I started stepping out of my comfort zone and going up to other moms I would see in the area, at the store or the gas station and making small talk. I eventually found some friends some even in my neighborhood. Then I started to notice that they all had one thing in common.......they hated Hawaii!! Now I will be the first to admit that I am not found of this place either but I was determined to make the most of it. I guess the saying is true Misery loves company!! I actually have grown to enjoy parts of my life here and I plan to make the most of it and hopefully help my new friends do the same.