In Between...

Okay, so I'm always a little slow to the party.  If people are raving about something, it makes me not want it.  When, a few years back, people were raving about "The Secret", I scoffed at them and vowed to never pick up that book.  Sometimes people are zombies that are so willing to follow someone or anything.  I blame Oprah.

So, I've stuck to that.  BUT, at the library the other day, I happened upon a book that was about the Law of Attraction (note: NOT The Secret).  I almost forgot that I even picked it up because whenever I go to the library, I'm such a book whore that I pick up many at a time.

So, in between completing a term paper and starting my business plan, I've been reading little snippets of this book and LOVE it.  Bear in mind, that I'm a happy, positive girl by nature and most of this is not difficult for me to understand and follow.  Here are a few little nuggets I'll share with you today.

"Where your energy goes, your energy flows."  So true...so true.  I will use my mom as an example.  I love the woman dearly, but she is always sick, sad, and has catastrophe all around her.  Why?  Because she attracts it by paying so much attention to it. 

"Settle for nothing less than magnificence in your life.  Your emotions fuel your energy and your energy fuels your future." 

So, my daily dose is to really be conscious of my thoughts this week and make sure they are positive ones.  What's your daily dose?

If You Give a Cricket a....

If any of you have ever had a kindergartner in your life, you're probably familiar with the book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". If you haven't, long story short, a boy gives a mouse a cookie and then the mouse asks for milk to go with it, which will remind him of something else, and then something else, and then something else. It's a whole chain of cause and effects and all that's left is a huge mess. Here's my version:

If you give a Cricket a Country Living magazine, she's going to want to decorate her house exactly like the cover.

While she's thinking about colors she wants in her rooms, she will remember that she has (for the past 6 years) wanted to frame her boys' hanboks that they came home with.

So, she'll take her current selections off the wall and put up the hanboks. When she takes the plates down from the wall, she'll remember that the diningroom needs something on it's walls.

She thinks that the plates would look good green and decides that she needs green spray paint at Home Depot.

While she's thinking about colors, she knows she has scarfs that she doesn't wear anymore that would look as pillows, so she pulls out old clothes and scarves and "dresses" pillows.

While she's pulling out old clothes, she'll remember that she needs new black pants and spends WAY too much time on LL Bean's site figuring out which ones would be best for her.

While she's on the computer, she'll remember that she's suppose to volunteer at her son's school.

While she's thinking about her sons, she'll remember that she's suppose to make a hot meal AND dessert for the cub scouts.

While she's thinking about cub scouts, she'll remember that she still hasn't sewn on a bunch of patches to her sons' shirts.

When her husband comes home, she tells him that ALL WEEK she has been running from one thing to the next with NO TIME to get ANYTHING accomplished.

While she's cranky and complaining, she'll remember that she hasn't had a green smoothie in DAYS.

While she's making her green smoothie, she looks around at her mess and realizes she needs to clean.

While she steps away from the blender, to start cleaning up her messy dishes, her blender freaks out (because she was in such a hurry assembling it, and therefore not entirely screwed onto the base).

While she's cleaning up said smoothie, she dies her white dishcloth a beautiful shade of green.

And chances are, when she sees a shade of green, she's going to remember that she saw a green pillow that she wanted in Country Living.



AAARRRGGHHH...must get it together and stop (not) doing a bazillion things at once and leaving gigantic messes behind. My mind has been soooo erratic lately and I KNOW it's directly related to my surroundings.

So, that day (actually happened last week) I decided to spend time getting my act together.  I'm happy with the results.  You'll see them in the coming days!

What's your daily dose?

Letting the Light In

I just changed some of my curtains and oh-my-goodness, what a difference that made. It is so much brighter in my house and my mood instantly lifted.

I'm trying to upload pics and blogger is giving me a heck of a time. Whenever I upload a pic, it just shows as code. Hmmmm....I'll try to figure it out.

I also have a great post that has LOTS of great pics to go along with it, but that one will have to wait, too.

How about you? Do colors/light effect your mood?

Just who do THEY think THEY are?

In going along with my post from yesterday, I think one of the saddest things is when you can see another person's greatness and they can't. Sitting back, watching someone flail around and thinking that they are so much better than that. I guess it's all a part of finding one's self, but sometimes I just want to smack people upside the head with a brick to get them to realize how awesome they are. They may not be able to do that, however, with a major concussion.

Case in point--I have a facebook friend that I knew very well in high school. Years have passed and I no longer "know" him. I can tell from his posts that he is on such a destructive path. And he is so much better than that. Considering one's personality is pretty much set by age six, I highly doubt that someone that was truly a unique and wonderful person twenty years ago has changed all that much. Meaning, he is still unique and wonderful. I can tell by his posts that he doesn't think that about himself. That is sad.

How about you? Is there anyone that you can reach out to and tell them gently, "Hey, you're better than you think you are." Maybe someone you know, it may be the person in the mirror.

Just who do you think you are???

Last week has been horrible. Miserable, terrible, no good. I've eaten entirely too much junk food. I can't think of any "real" food I've had. Just junk, junk, junk.

Not surprisingly, I have been feeling like junk, junk, junk and announced to my husband a few days ago that I was going to start being like everyone else. I was going to become negative, neurotic, and all around no fun to be with. Normally, I'm the opposite. I think I'm one of the most optimistic people I know. I give support when needed, pep talks, lend an ear, and try to give good solid (positive) advice. Well, I was through with looking for the silver lining and I was going to become Eyeore. While I was at it, I was ready to spend too much time thinking about everything I don't have and everything I'm not.

So, I haven't told anyone else this stuff--I just unloaded on my husband. He's a lucky guy, huh? Truth is, in our relationship, he's the Eyeore. He's the one thinking that the sky is falling. Here's a newsflash if you are a pessimistic person--YOU ARE NO FUN TO HANG WITH. Here's another newsflash for you negative souls--IT IS EXHAUSTING BEING POSITIVE ALL THE FREAKING TIME. Seriously, it takes a lot of energy seeing crap all around you and remaining calm and upbeat.

Here's what's happening: God is sending me messages. Not crazy cat lady getting signs from above to go out and get me some more cats. But, I have had two people (that I don't know) tell me this week what positive energy I have. One person said to me today, "I just can tell you have a positive outlook. You give off good energy." The other person told me that me touch was great and had a lot of positive energy about me.

Also, I was chatting with my Marine nephew the other day online about tattoos. I was telling him what I would get if I was going to get one (I'm not going to, but I can still have a plan!). He said, "Well, you should get something with the universe because you're the Child of the Universe." I'd forgotten about that title. My dad gave me a first and middle name (neither of which are Cricket) because he said to him it meant, "Child of the Universe." Yes, he was kind of a hippie, but whatev. The point is that he just made up a name and thought that it had a good meaning and gave it to me when I was born.

Living up to being "Child of the Universe" can be exhausting, but it's worth it. I can have my cranky times, but deep down inside, I'm a happy, positive girl with good energy. That's what I know is true about me. God knows it too and that's why he sent me a few reminders.

Who are you and do you need to be reminded? Oh, and who you truly are has nothing to do with what you look like or what size you wear....it's who your soul is. Who are you?

Mmmmm...Chocolate

I may or may not have posted at the beginning of the year (I'm too lazy to spend a second and actually look at my previous posts)that I was making the switch from milk chocolate to dark chocolate. I made that switch and it wasn't even hard.

My mother-in-law gave me a bag of dark chocolate Hershey kisses at Christmas time (along with a can of tuna, but I won't go into that gift) and I kind of rolled my eyes and thought "yeah, as if" because I NEVER ate dark chocolate. I thought it was too bitter and not sweet enough.

Around the time I switched to agave nectar in place of my 3 TABLESPOONS of sugar in my coffee (yup, you read that right--have I mentioned that diabetes runs in my family?), I broke open the bag and tried to make peace with dark chocolate. Here's what I found: I didn't mind it and (BONUS) I didn't need to eat much of it. I had two kisses and that was plenty. Back the frig up--let me explain that I have ALWAYS hated those skinny bitches that talk about how "a little piece of dark chocolate is how I like to splurge." WHAT? That's a splurge? How about chocolate chip cookie dough dipped in milk chocolate with some chocolate ice cream and a chaser of chocolate fudge sundae sauce? Now, that's a splurge. Please--a little piece of dark chocolate.

Guess what I consider a nice little treat these days? A little piece of dark chocolate. Don't hate. I'm not skinny. Not even close, but I do find that a tiny piece is doing the trick for me. I'm not sure if it's linked to coming off of the added sugar and onto the agave nectar, but it probably is. When I've been at friends' houses and had coffee with regular sugar, it seems weird to me. This could also go hand in hand with my new green smoothie habit. All I know is that I thought I would NEVER like dark chocolate and now I love it. Hmmm...that wasn't as hard as I thought. Makes me wonder what else I think is too hard and that I will hate, but won't be that bad. Is that exercise calling my name?

Maybe, just maybe, all these little tiny daily doses are changing me.

Oh, and here's what my bible, Woman's Day says about dark choc. this month: "Eating it DAILY for just one week can improve cholesterol levels and reduce inflammation in women." That comes from the smarty pants people at Johns Hopkins. All you need is 30 calories worth--trust me, it will be enough!

Drink up, friends!

Because I base all of my posts on absolute medical data that I have compiled after spending hours and hours poring over medical journals, I have interesting and useful ways of improving my health and, hopefully, yours too. I hope you appreciate all I do for you (the millions of readers that I have that never leave a comment).

Okay, so you saw through it. Basically, whatever strikes my fancy is what I write about. BUT, I will let you in on a little secret. I swear that I get my best tips by reading magazines. I am an addict when it comes to them. I've been thinking about subscribing to more just to save money. In the mail I get Woman's Day, Family Circle, and Better Homes & Gardens. Ummm...no, I'm not 70 years old. I'm 37, but I LOVE these magazines. In fact, just receiving them makes me feel a little grown up--which is good considering how abnormally immature I am. Seriously, my mom gets these same magazines.

Here's what I just learned in the March issue of Woman's Day: people who drink 3-4 cups of coffee a day (regular or decaf) had a 25% lower risk of diabetes than non-coffee drinkers. they got that from the "Archives of Internal Medicine"--sounds official so I'm believing it. Now, one would assume (duh!) that these coffee drinkers are not loading it up with sugar and cream--like I USED to. I love it when I see the error of my ways. Or just how I used to eat like I was invincible.

These days when I enjoy my coffee (normally just one cup a day for me), I use agave nectar as a sweetener. Yes, it's more expensive and no, I doesn't taste exactly like sugar, but it doesn't effect blood sugar like regular old table sugar does. I also have a few drops of light cream in my coffee. IsweartoGodifoneofmymillionsofreadersrecommendsusingskimmilk,Iwillhuntthemdownandbitchslapthemintonextweek. (Just a little thought running through my head.)

Today, I just might have a second cup as my daily dose. What are you drinking?