Difficult Blessings

Ever receive one of those blessing in your life that requires frequent "this is a blessing" reminders?   Short term thorn-in your-sides, that eventually become long term joys.  We are experiencing a couple of those in our family.  Though they are private experiences, I thought I'd laugh with you all about it without sharing any details.  I think it's quite hilarious that there are things you want, you hope for in your life, and when you get them the slow uphill climb of difficulty sets in.

For instance, for me child bearing is extremely difficult.  No, I am NOT announcing a pregnancy here, just using this as an easily relate-able example.  Children are a wonderful gift and blessing.  We pray for them, and long for them.  But actually getting pregnant and staying pregnant, (for me) is not fun.  It means months of illness, tests, stress, and accepting help from others.  Pregnancy is definitely one difficult blessing.  But it is absolutely worth every hardship!  Children are a beautiful gift and there is nothing in the world like loving and being loved by a child.

I would also include schooling in the difficult blessing category.  What a blessing higher education can be.  But there are many moments where you have to remind yourself, "This is a good thing",  "It will be great in the end"  or "It WILL be over one day!".

So if you have a moment, please humor me and share one of your previous "difficult blessings".  It will help me get through mine, and it's always fun to laugh at things from the past.  Thank you for sharing your experiences and laughing with me.  You were laughing with me right?  Just Kidding.

Image Link

Give Away

Hey Guys!  I am doing my first Give Away today Monday July 15th at my Facebook page.  I made a really cute Owl Prayer Board to help you remember the people you know who need prayers, you could also use it as a to-do board etc.  It's 8x10 and it comes with everything you need, papers, pins, etc. 
Here's the link to my FB page so you can enter:

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Focused-on-the-Positive/207847512639736

All you have to do is like my Facebook page, or share this give away on facebook with your friends.  Pretty easy.  It is open today Monday July 15th until midnight.  Good luck!

The Walls My Family Lives Within

So, I started writing  a post today, and ended up writing a poem. Strange.  This poem had nothing to do with what I was going to write about.  But somehow it ended up coming out of me.  I am no poet.  But here is what I wrote.

The Walls My Family Lives Within

There are things inside my house, things you might not see.

It is these things that make my house a special place to me.

There's a race track in the living room, and a secret curtain cave,

for my little roaring lions on the days they're feeling brave.

There is a room inside my house with sweet dreams, and sister giggles.

And a canvas in the driveway with hopscotch and chalk squiggles.

Then in the spring there is a place with green and growing things,

where you can spy a ladybug, or hear the robins sing.

There's a front porch for us to gather, and greet friends passing by.  

And soft green grass to lay in as we gaze up at the sky.

You might see rooms and windows, and a fence that's giving in,

But my heart sees more than just the walls my family lives within.

by Maria Ellsworth

Look at me! I'm crafty!

Remember my last post about the prayer board???  Well, I made one!  Yup, all by myself.  And guess what else?  I like it!  Check it out.

I used an old frame, it's one of those $5 frames from Walmart, it was missing the glass and needed to be used in a project.  I painted it black, then used a scrap of fabric and stuffed it with fluff. 



Then I made that little pin cushion, hot glued it on along with the little envelope, stuffed it with paper, added stickers (I don't have a criket) and voila!  Not too shabby if I say so myself.  With so many people in my prayers, this will come in handy.  And it's cute too. 

Spring is grand

I love that no matter how high it snows in the winter, spring always comes.  The colors of spring are blooming at my house.  Happy day!

Pics & Quotes

Here are some of the uplifting images I've posted on the Focused on the Positive Facebook page. If you haven't checked it out or liked it yet take a second to do so!

There you go.  A small sampling of Focused's Facebook page.  Head over there and like it if you haven't yet!  Click here Facebook Page

Spotlight Day

New idea.  Once a month I want to showcase original work from you guys here on the blog on a special Spotlight post.  During our fun link exchange I learned how amazing and talented you are, and I'd like to show off your talents.  So, if you have something you'd like to share please email it to me at: focusedonthepositive@gmail.com

I'm looking for short stories, poetry, uplifting articles, art, photography, crafting projects, etc.   I'm hoping to get lots of e-mails, so be patient if your work isn't shown right away.  Yay.  I'm excited!  Aren't you?!?   Alright, off you go, be creative :-)

What's Cooking?

We were out of town these last few days, which means eating out a lot.  After two days of that, I longed for healthy homemade food.  So, here's what's for dinner tonight:

Homemade Broccoli Cheese Soup
Autumn Salad
Homemade bread (in the breadmaker- that does too count!)
Turtle brownies  

Want a peek?

 

PS- to make extra yummy brownies get the boxed brownie mix when they are on sale (10 for $10) and drizzle caramel sauce over the batter before baking!  I have caramel sauce on hand for ice cream sundae night.   

Let's Link Up!

Today I am curious.  Curious about you.  My friends, my readers.  Who are you?  What are your interests/talents?  What concerns do you have right now?  What do you do to be positive?  SO, let's get more acquainted.  Please use the comment section to tell me about yourself; and be sure to include your website info if you have any, so we all can visit you.

Come on friends!  Let's link up!

SUCCESS!

I went grocery shopping and didn't get frustrated or lose my temper. I was in a good mood the whole time. AND I had both of my kids with me, and went to multiple stores!!! SUCCESS!!! Just had to share.

Ode to Fathers

I am not a poet by any means,

but here is my Father's Day poem:

Ode to Fathers

Never afraid of big bad spiders,

Or teaching scardy cats to be bike riders.

Letting us beat you, or so we thought.

Eating the fish that together we caught.

Chasing away monsters from under the bed.

Giving your shoulder to my tired head.

Doing the dirty work that needs to be done,

to make sure the family gets to have fun.

You have a tough job, and I thought I should say

Dad's are amazing, so have a GREAT day!

Whether a father, grandfather, husband, or friend,

you men are important.
We are grateful to have you in our lives.

Happy Fathers' Day!!

If I had a million dollars

As I was doing the usual stuff today, cleaning, cooking, etc. I decided what I would do if I were rich, well not so much do, more like buy.  Not a huge house, or boat, or fancy convertible mustang, I AM A GIRL and here's what I'd buy:

GOOD, STRONG, garbage bags.  The fancy ones, made out of the same stuff as spiderman's clothes!

Aluminum foil more than 25 feet in length.

Name brand everything.

The largest sized Ketchup that fits in my fridge.

ALL of the things to make all of the things on Pinterest that I haven't made yet.

Towels.  Lots and lots of fluffy towels.  And maybe a towel warmer :-)

A DYSON VACUUM  ahh....only in my dreams....

A never ending supply of Kraft Dinner (should be no surprise to my loyal viewers)

A Cricut machine.  Don't exactly know what it is or does, I just know that as a female I want one.

And.... Drum roll please

A Secret room built in my house, with a secret lock system that only I know, that I can fill with whatever I want.  Crafts, tons of frilly pillows that serve no purpose, and perhaps a hot tub. 

That is what I would do if I had gobs and gobs of money.  'Cause I'm fun and practical like that.

Something's New!

Guess what??  We are going to start putting ads here on the blog.  Small, valid ads that you folks might be interested in.  I know, you don't really care, but it's exciting for me.  So, please spread the word.  If you or someone you know want to place an ad click on the new handy dandy "Advertise" page and you'll  receive all the info you need. 

In other news, I would like to open the "Warm Fuzzy" page up to the viewers.  Instead of me talking about awesome people I know, I'd like you to write a Warm Fuzzy about someone you know.  So if you have someone worthy of a Warm Fuzzy, please write something up and email it to me at focusedonthepositive@gmail.com

Also, we have a Facebook page.  For those of you who are fans, head over and like us on Facebook.  You'll receive fun messages and all the latest "Focused" news.  

Mystery Solved

Recently there have been quite a few mysterious things going on at my abode, to which I have shrugged my shoulders and said hmmm???  BUT during our recent car trip, we found out all of the answers, which I found hilarious!  HA!

The mysteries included:

1. The dog's food dish has been fully devoured every day.... hmm.. she must be having a growth spurt - do dogs have those?

2. The air conditioning in our car is not working..... Not great when we are in the desert and the kids can't feel any a/c.  I suppose the car is not new anymore.  Time for a tune up.

3. Every time I get into the car it smells like dog food.  I haven't bought dog food in 3 weeks. hmmmm, strange.

4. Every morning the dog is super hungry!  Didn't she know she just ate an entire bowl of dog food last night?

You want to know what happened and how it's all connected? 
While getting ready to depart on the long journey back home my husband is cleaning out the car before loading it up. 

He notices some dog food in the glove box. 

ODD.

He starts cleaning it out. 

There are HANDFULS and HANDFULS of dog food. 

So much, that he has to go to a car wash to vacuum it all out.

Here's a piece of info that might be helpful.  The dogs bag of food and dog dish are in the garage, right in front of the car which is also in the garage....

SO apparently, there is some small critter gathering our dogs food every night, and has made our car it's own personal storage unit.  Thus blocking the a/c from the vents.  Thus leaving the dog dish empty every morning.  Thus making the car smell like dog food every.single.day. 

So I have invested in a Rubbermaid container to now store the dog food in the garage, and the dogs dish is currently back in the house, under the close supervision of our 1 year old. 

MYSTERY SOLVED!  I don't know why, but I find this hysterical.  Life is funny some days, eh!

Changing it up

I don't know what's happened to me, but I have gone from a Hamburger Helper kind a girl, to a made-from-scratch? I can do that!  kind of girl.  I'm sure Pinterest has had a lot to do with it. 

Anyways, here are two of my new favorite recipes that don't involve opening a box.  They are mighty tasty!



Dijon Chicken Linguine with Chanterelle Mushrooms

This is my new favorite meal.  I didn't use the kind of mushroom they called for, I used cremini, and it was still divine! Click here for the recipe Dijon Chicken Recipe  Also, instead of wine, I use chicken broth.



Banana, Raspberry, White Chocolate Chip Bread!

Oh my.  I love this bread!  You have to try it!  Here's the link to the recipe Banana Bread 

To see more of my favorite recipes follow me on Pinterest.  Happy Eating! 

Sharing = caring

If I find something that I love I like to share it.  SO, if you haven't heard of Pinterest, let me take a moment to share this with you.  Pinterest is a website that gives us the ability to "pin" anything we see on the web, and collect them on our own page for whenever we need them.  Thought I'd share some of the wonderful things I have found there.


Dry erase, b/c every day there are new things we love about each other

There are SO many yummy recipes on pinterest!

 

 For the laundry room

SERIOUSLY AWESOME!



I want this!

  

I'm doing this above my bed, pretty and inexpensive!

So, if you enjoyed any of these cool ideas and you haven't joined the Pinterest craze, perhaps you should head over there and try it out.  You can always check out more of my pins by clicking on the red Pinterest button here at the blog. 

 

Megan the Animal Rescuer!

My daughter had quite the experience a few weeks ago.  In the little city I live in we received some snow.  Apparently there are some birds who are still flying south for the winter, (shouldn't they have arrived south a long time ago, it's the middle of winter...?). 

Anyways, hundreds of them landed all around town due to the snow fall.  Not knowing this, I went out in my back yard to tell my dog to stop barking, and see her scaring the begeebees out of one of these birds.  Well, Megan goes into rescue-hero mode, and wants to save the poor little bird.  However, she is quite upset, and afraid, that her own dog might eat the bird, (In reality the dog is not much bigger than the bird, not really going to happen).

So Megan is chasing the dog, and trying to calm down the bird, and all in all handling the situation pretty well for a 5 year old rescue hero, except for the spurts of frantic crying. 

This continues until daddy gets home, and of course he knows exactly what to do.  Dad and daughter rescue the bird from the terrible dog, put it in a large rubber maid container of safety, and take it to the rescue shelter, which, by the way was packed with tons of cars dropping off these birds. 

Now Megan considers herself an animal rescuer, and is quite proud of herself.

 Megan taking good care of the bird.

On a side note, the next day she said maybe we should have taken the bird to "Bulldogs Meats" (our local make-your-own-meat store.  We drive by the signs for it on our way to school every day, and DADDY told her in a kid-friendly way what they do there).  I asked her "um, didn't you want to rescue the bird?" After all she did have a huge meltdown about our dog eating it.  Then she remembered, and was happy with her actions.  Yay! 

The End.

Out with the old

Happy New Year!  Christmas has come and gone, and now I feel like REDECORATING!  I'm ready to take down those Christmas decorations and redo the whole house!  Yes sir, I've even picked out the new color schemes and everything.  Want a sneak peak?  Here ya go.

Family room colors, cream, with blue red and yellow (perhaps not this yellow though)



I like this fabric :-)



Living room colors, cream with yellow, green, and red accents.  



I love these colors for the girls room, when they share a room



Color scheme for master, White/cream walls, green and blue accents in a pretty non baby way

So now all I want to do is look at fabric and paint samples!  Who wants to go with me???  It will be a fun, but long process of sewing, shopping, painting, brainstorming, etc.  But one day our house will look fabulous!  Until then, I will stare at these pictures with hope and anticipation.  Yippee.

PS- gotta love pinterest for giving me all these ideas!
PPS- Oh yeah, I'm getting new carpet this new year too!  That's what started all this brainstorming.  EXCITED!!!!

It's going to be tricky!

Time to get ready for Christmas.  We decorated our house yesturday, which I was a little hesitant about since my little one loves shiney things and danger.  Now they're combined so it should be super fun! 

P.S. Not my baby

The other stumbling block is my 5 year old.  She is NOT good at keeping secrets, for example, buying daddy presents.  This is how it usually goes:
Pick up present and put in shopping cart.

Megan: "I can't wait to tell daddy we got him a blah blah blah"

Me:  "NOOOOO!!! You can't tell him.  It's a surprise.  He can't find out until Christmas."

Megan: "OK. I won't tell him we got it.  I"ll just tell him we looked at it."

Me: "Nope."

Megan: "OK, I'll say Hey dad we went to the store and we did NOT look at the blah blah blah.  And we definitely did NOT get you one!"  (you have to hear how she says definitely, it's SO cute!)

Me:  "Megan, you cannot even say the word blah blah blah.  You cannot tell him we did or did not look at it.  You cannot even tell him we even went to the store."

Megan: "OK."

Get home.  Walk in the door, "Dad, guess what we got you a blah blah blah!"

So we may not have the element of surprise this Christmas morning.  But it sure is fun trying.  Ahh, I do love Christmas.

A Gift for Yours Truly

I have decided what I want.

I want a contraption/gadget/button that is easily available, (like in the palm of my hand), that I can push whenever I want to slow... down... time.  Or the power/magic/ability to do so. 

And I know exactly when I would use it:

When my baby is asleep. 

One Mississippi,Two Mississippi... Joyous peace!

When my husband is in mid-compliment.  

I'd enjoy that in slow motion! 

"T h a t   c a s s a r o l e     w a s     A M A Z I N G.

 H o w   d o   y o u    d o   i t  ? ? ?"

Slow motion high five.

Right after the correct amount of make-up has been applied,
and my clothes are still

un-wrinkled/peanutbutterandjellied/slobbered on. 

and

Right after I finish cleaning the house. 

Self explanatory.

So, if any of you find this contraption in your SkyMall magazine or what have you, please, BUY ONE!  Then tell me so I can buy one too!