WOW

How does time go by so fast? I swear it was just the beginning of February and yet tomorrow is March 1st!

Time flies when you are having fun, and when you are over 20. ;-)
Life seems so busy and so mundane all at the same time. I don't mean mundane as a bad thing really, I love my life, love my husband and kids, and all that entails. I mean more that it is ordinary at the moment. There is really nothing new happening, nothing exciting to look forward to, for now. I know life isn't meant to be all excitement and Disney trips, but couldn't it be a little bit. (Especially the Disney trips!) I do love the down time, my kids have been pretty content to hang out at home, and that makes me happier than I can express. We have 3 birthdays next month, one of them being mine, and one of them being Lars 35th!! Hmmmm, sounds like it is time for a big party.
My niece is getting married in 2 weeks! Unbelievable and wonderful. I'm so excited for her.

I must give a shout out to my wonderful daughter who made the honor roll again this term. I love that she does well on her work because she wants to do well and what is right rather than to achieve this "honor" but it does reflect her hard work and dedication so she deserves to be bragged about. Love you Emma!! Oscar did well and has improved in so many ways. I'm so proud of how he has changed his attitude about homework and is staying on top of it so well now. Hooray for homework not taking ALL night anymore! Way to go Oscar. I love you and am proud of your improvements! They are both so smart and far beyond me already and I love them more than I can say.
Henry hasn't received a report card yet, the elementary school runs their terms differently, but he is enjoying school and is making some fun friends. He is GREAT at spelling and has improved his handwriting SO much. Way to go Henry.
Lilli isn't in school yet but is ready to go to preschool next year. I'm not sure how I feel about that. She is my baby and I'm not ready to let her go, but I will because I'm excited for her and what life has in store for my vivacious, fun loving girl.

One fun/interesting thing that has happened is that my sister-in-law and my husband convinced me to start a new business venture. Scentsy wickless candles. They really are awesome, I L-O-V-E them.  My house always smells wonderful despite the fact that I have a bunny cage in my front room, a dog, a cat, and 4 kids. Thank you to Katie for introducing me to this product.
Seriously, I have never been overly fond of party selling, but I really do love Scentsy so I figured why not give it a shot. I do like parties; I just don't like convincing people to have them. However, this is at least something I have an interest in and it is a decent company. I won't name any names but I have a bad image in my mind of direct sells because of how some companies do things.

SO there it is, a plug for my new business and what is happening in our lives! Hopefully I will get on here more this month then I did the last 2.

Taxes

So, it is indeed tax time again. Last year I said I might end up more organized and ready this year. Guess what!?!?!?! It didn't happen. Not really a surprise but it does make me dread taxes a little more.

We always get them done just fine and yet every year I start to stress about them. We even have a guy that does our taxes for us I just have to get everything together for our personal and Lars business taxes. BLAH- I just don't enjoy it. Especially when I don't have Disneyworld to look forward to.

Okay, okay, it isn't as though I have a lot to complain about, it just always makes me grumpy, until it is done and I get the refund back ;-) That part is never depressing. So do we do something responsible or something fun, and when you think about it isn't the fun choice responsible in the end, I mean we really should work on that family togetherness right?

The other thing that is depressing me is my inability to keep up with my blog, not that it really matters but I enjoy it so I really should take the time to keep it updated with my silly thoughts and cute pictures of my kids. :-)

As for the taxes and organization, I'll get back to you this time next year on whether I have improved at all in that area. (If anyone is interested, I did improve in my ability to keep up with my family’s mass of laundry, yay me! One thing down, one million to go!) ;~)

My affair

I am in an unhealthy relationship. I hate to admit it but it is true. It isn’t really even true love, it is more of an obsession. It is a love/hate relationship. It can drive me crazy and then other times leave me feeling blissful.


What, oh, you want to know the second party in this little affair? It isn’t easy to confess that you are having relationship issues but it is always better to come clean, right?

Here it goes; my obsession, my passion, my infatuation is with…food.

It is true, as shameful as it is. I love food. Well to be specific my obsession isn’t with all food, I mean the fruits and vegetables just don’t call to me like the chocolate, the desserts, or the creamy pasta dishes.

I try to resist, I promise myself that this is the last time we will meet, the last time I will give in, but it always ends up calling me, luring me, tempting me. I have tried many things, I even started a new affair with the gym thinking that would distract me, give me the strength to resist. I feel great when I am nurturing that relationship but after I leave the gym, the desserts and breads start to taunt me. And sadly, I love it. The big problem is, my deep (or not so deep) secret, I don’t want to stop, don’t want to give up on this relationship.

The way a decadent chocolate cake looks, smells, and most importantly tastes. The way the chocolate can just melt in your mouth as you savor the flavor. Or the taste of berries heaped with swirls of whipped cream sitting in a glistening glaze and flaky crust.

See the problem? But I love it, I don’t plan to give it up, but maybe I could try a little bit more of the unexciting foods, try to spice up that relationship a little more and leave the exhilarating relationship for special occasions. It is worth a try, if I can nurture the affair with the gym a little more and reward myself occasionally with the tantalizing desserts, maybe my “relationships” as well as my body, will be a little healthier.

Can anyone relate? Does anyone else have the thrilling fixation with delectable treats and food? Come on…I know you do. This is why we love the holidays so much, we are given numerous opportunities to feel the thrill of consuming delectable treats.

It is one of those relationships that so many of us have in common and we adore the guilty pleasure of allowing ourselves a little of the obsession. I plan to continue this sordid little affair forever, but like I said maybe I can nurture some other “relationships” as well. Wish me luck, as I wish you! :~)

A picture of December

This is a brief recap of December at the Andersen home.

We had a fun month full of...

           FAMILY

     BAKING

HOLIDAY EVENTS

          GIFTS

            MORE GIFTS

          
            GIFTS

AND EVEN MORE GIFTS
      

AS WELL AS LOTS...

AND LOTS OF FUN!!!

We hope your holidays were just as wonderful!

But Mama!

"I'm a big girl Mama! I can do it!"
"I'm a big girl Mama! I can be careful!"
"I'm a big girl Mama! I don't need to hold hands."

These are the words of a 3 year old. My 3 year old, Lilli. Spoken on an almost constant basis..."I'm a big girl..." can be combined with almost anything but what it comes down to, what it really means, is that my baby is not so much a baby anymore. My baby is...*sigh* growing up.

Don't get me wrong it isn't that I don't enjoy her and all her stages but I've been through this 3 times before, am still going through it with all of them. I didn't realize it so much when Oscar was a baby. With your first you are so excited for everything, can't wait to see what they do next, but now with my 4th, I know what is coming and I know how fast it goes by. It seems to go just a little faster with each kid.

Lilli is darling, so fun, and it is a joy to watch her grow up, I just wish I could pause time once in awhile...spend some extra time in one of those wonderful moments that happen.

I go through this same thing with the other kids, they are getting so big, so old, so mature. (well the maturity has its ups and downs but so does mine.)

It is when I realize how quickly it is going by that I need to remind myself to be more patient, and enjoy each moment I have with them. But along with having kids and having the wonderful moments comes life. And life is about good and bad, ups and downs. So I will take the good with the bad because I love just having them in my life. But please can I just pause and live in the good moments once in awhile...

The internet... the metamorphosis I've seen, 13 years of change, or... man I'm getting old

Since I’ve been married the internet has come so far. It has changed, morphed with us really, as we learned the many things it could do for us, or that we could do with it. When I first started it was awesome because of email, I could keep in touch with my family in another state.


Then there was the “make your own webpage” craze. Everyone had one. You put pictures of your family up and updated it every once in awhile. Next, I discovered places you could go to chat with people that had something in common with you; for me, this was kids. There was the parents of September 1997 babies, parents of closely spaced siblings, etc. At the time, this was a lifesaver for me. I could go to these message boards and feel connected with people, understood by someone. For me that was important. I didn’t really know anyone in Salt Lake City at the time and I found it difficult to make friends. For one thing, I was a mom, people assume you are busy with that and don’t need friends. For another thing, it seemed as though everyone already had their circle of friends, people they had known forever.

I needed friendship. Yes, I had Lars and he was wonderful, but I needed something beyond the house. I thought I was being selfish at the time, that perhaps there was something wrong with me. Then I found these groups online and I realized I was just like every other mother out there. We are humans and we are not made to be isolated, we do not thrive that way, or at least I don’t.

Eventually I made friends; I learned how to be a mother, a wife, and myself. I learned the importance of each of those, that they are all me but I needed to indulge and cultivate each of those parts of me individually at times. Most of my life is spent with them melded together but it is good for my soul to be just me for a couple hours, I am still Mom and they are my priority, but for the sake of us all I have to have to be me, to learn, to do. I also need times when my whole heart and soul is being a Mom, and times when I have to concentrate on my relationship, my marriage. It sounds like a lot but it really isn’t. It makes my life so complete, and in turn makes me a much better wife, a much better mother, and a much happier me.

Nowadays, the internet seems to consume my life at times. I bank, I shop, I even order food. Who knew really? However, this brings me to the world of blogging, something I swore I wouldn’t do. Finally, I caved, my sister had one, my friends had one, and they all wanted to see what was going on in my world too. So one night I just did it, I set up my blog and I typed. WOW! I’ve always enjoyed writing but this was cathartic. It filled something in me I didn’t know needed filling. It is addicting at times, though so hard to make the time to do it. Not to mention the fact that sometimes you feel a little silly sending your thoughts out there… out into the world of blogging, through the internet into others homes, onto their screens, and into their minds. What can I have to say that is worth anyone else’s time? Maybe nothing, maybe no one reads much of it, and you know what? That is okay too. It is enough for me just to write, as mediocre as it may be, it’s one of those things I do for me. I don’t always blog about my kids, it is kind of about my life, which is so much my kids, so much my husband, but also so much me. So here is to my family and to my random thoughts…enjoy them or not, I just enjoy putting them out there.

Smile...

So, does anyone watch "Glee"? It took me awhile to get into it, but I like it. It is silly, sometimes sweet, and usually funny. I digress though, in one of the most recent episodes they sang a song, Smile written by the great Charlie Chaplin. Now I had no idea that he did anything but act silly on the screen, and I have never liked this song really, but I love the arrangement they sang on Glee.


It is one of those songs though that makes you get really contemplative and thoughtful. You know those, you just want to turn them on so you will sit and think. Some songs you want to listen to when you are sad, sometimes (And I know most guys won’t understand this.) but sometimes just to let yourself feel sad, to wallow for a moment so you can move on. Just to show you what a t.v. addict I am and to illustrate my point about just feeling sad sometimes, there is an episode of “Everybody loves Raymond” in which Ray peeks in the window to find Deborah sitting on the couch crying. He of course is sure something horrible is wrong. Later he confronts her about it and, first of all, is mad at him for spying on her, and second explains to him that sometimes women just need to have a good cry. He is baffled, understandably so from his point of view. However, there is some truth to this, though this was a bit exaggerated in my opinion. We women feel though, we feel deeply, and though sometimes it is a pain, we relish in those feelings and invite the opportunities to express each of those feelings. Maybe this is why women, as science has proven, have the need to express more words per day than men do. This is possibly, why you seem to find many more amateur women bloggers then male.

Back to my original point of this post, the song “Smile”. It talks about smiling even when life is hard. Which is exactly my point, most of us take the time to cry for a minute, wipe our eyes, and then move on. You put a smile on your face, you live life, and you simply move on.

It doesn’t mean that you don’t feel sad about something bad that has happened, it means you simply continue to live life, you find something good in it, and you live.

When bad things have happened to me in my life, people have commented that I handle it so well. I don’t always, I take my moments to cry, rant, and even lose it. Then I put that smile back on and continue on with life. It doesn’t make everything go away, it doesn’t fix everything, but it does help. You could continue to wallow, to answer with a monologue when people ask how you are, but to what end?

Lars knows, he deals with my bad moments (or days) and he is there for me through it. We all cry our buckets of tears, the tears wash away a bit of the saddness, enough to continue on. They take off the edge. Lars is there for that everytime. And he still loves me after, and that helps me too.

So this was kind of an all over the place post but feelings are like that aren’t they? I say feel, feel every feeling that comes your way, but always keep living…and keep smiling.