Thursday, November 4, 2010

What holding onto anger does for you

Holding onto anger and resentment is dangerous. Does it pose a danger to the person(s) that you are angry with? No. Unfortunately not. You cannot make the object of your rage and resentment combust and turn into an inferno like the X-Man Cyclops just by giving them the evil eye. You wanna know who suffers? You. Yes thats right. You. Depending on who you are holding all this rage in for, they may not even be aware of your feelings and are going about their daily lives happily doing their own thing.

So what does being pissed off to no end at this person do for you? It destroys you. Literally. It makes you a bitter, hateful, miserable person. People can sense there is something going on with you and it will seem like there is a dark cloud that follows you around. Who wants to be around a person like that?

Well, what does harboring resentment and ill will towards a person that you are close to do to you? It does the same thing to you; it eats you up on the inside. Only this time the person that you have all these negative thoughts and feelings probably KNOW that you feel this way and after a time this begins to totally destroy your relationship(s).

Sometimes its hard letting the past go. Its hard letting things lie in the past. Sometimes its hard to let that destructive anger go, but if you want peace of mind and you don't want to push people away from you, just free yourself from it.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

More of my musical favs....music aint what it used to be














I love JB! I think he got slept on.









Some of my old school favorites...music aint what it used to be



This is my JAM!!!!!!




This is my #1 favorite song of all time. Why? I dont know. I was about to graduate from high school and it was my favorite party song. But ummmm....who told Mary that black lip liner and goldish lipstick was the bidness?????



And this is my other #1 favorite song of all time. Yes you can have 2! LOL!!! This is my Happy song. No matter what kind of mood Im in this song makes me happy!













The whole Off tha Hook album was HOT!!!!
















More to come.....

My Crock Pot Love Affair

Im very serious about my crock pots. I love them so much. We have such a wonderful tight bond with each other and I absolutely need at least one in my life. I used my first love so much that I loved it to death. He blew up one me. :( I hated to replace that love in my life but life must go on. Not only did I buy another one, but my dad gave me one so now that I have two of these bad boys I don't know what to do with myself.

Well.....yeah I do. Use both at the same time. I have beef chuck simmering in one and string beans in the other. Right before its time to eat I'll break out my new rice cooker ( I used that one to death too - may it rest in peace) and use some of the juice from the beef to cook the rice.




Ummm ummm UMMMMM this is gonna be good!




Monday, November 1, 2010

This is why the 80s should die

See, this is why the 80s should die. I mean, I know SOMEBODY is gonna think this is hot and its hot alright. A hot mess is what it is. Then it has the nerve to cost $18. I was just a little girl when Chlorox stained jeans with holes cut in them were the "in" thing. Even way back then I knew that was a travesty before the Lord to wear such atrocities. The 80s is the one fashion era that does not need to make a come back. I'd rather see the Civil War era  Scarlett O 'Hara home made curtain-looking dress making a comeback than this here. SMH.
I absolutely LOVE doing flexirod sets. I havent done any in a long while because I have not had a relaxer in over 6 months and I'm not sure if a forest of new growth and flexi rods go hand in hand.

Once I get a fresh relaxer I plan on revisiting one of my favorite styles.









This is how it held up after 5 days. Its a little frizzy but its still ok.





I made a You Tube tutorial on how to achieve this style.



I have NEVER been able to do a successful knot out. NEVER. This is as close to being done right that I have ever been.

The other night I did them on dry hair. I just put some of Qhemet Biologics stuff on it. I dont know what it is because the label is faded and I couldn't read it. This is how it turned out.








It was ok, but the curls fell out in about 2 hours. I decided to do them on damp hair so that when it dried it would have more definition and maybe the waves would stay in longer. This time I sprayed each section with a little water to dampen it and I just put Vaseline on it. This is how it turned out.







One side is sorta tight and the other side is sorta loose. I know what I did to get each side to look the way it did so the ext time maybe it will look right.

I have to say this is the best I have ever done, so even tho its jacked up Im still proud of ma sayelf!!

Here is my 3rd attempt.







Menu planning thats actually doable.

Has menu planning been your nemesis? It certainly has been mine. I could never for the life of me decide what we were going to have for dinner because I didn't like cooking and that was due in part because the whole ordeal seemed to be a chore ESPECIALLY when I didn't know what I was going to be making for dinner that night.

If you were like me, you visited the net for blogs, searched for pre planned menus, or maybe you even called up your girlfriend and asked her what shes having for dinner that night. Yes, I have done all those things and I still ended up clueless and frustrated.

One day I had an epiphany. I use Google Calendar to plan all the things in life that need to be mapped out so I figured why not plan out what we will be eating from day to day?

I felt like I should have been nominated for a Nobel Prize just for the mere IDEA of it all. Not that making a week long menu hasn't been attempted by me and millions of people before, but not to this level that I'm about to get into.

In Google Calendar, you can set up events to reoccur every day, week, every 2 weeks, every 3 weeks, every month, year, ect ect ect. What I decided was to do 31 days of menus, and have them all to reoccur once every month. That way, I will have a menu for everyday of the week henceforth and forever more. Not only that, you can set up each meal and send invitations to the event to whomever you choose ie your always hungry family members. Now your husband and children will never have to ask you that dreaded question: "Whats for dinner???" and you will no longer have to look like this: :-I They will receive an email with that days menu listed.

Here's where the hard work comes in. Now you have got to come up with all these menus. Don't panic though! Take your time. It took me 2 weeks to do it. I went to the library and checked out a grand total of 2 cookbooks. I made sure before I took them home that they were full of recipes that I would want to make that had few ingredients. Added to my arsenal was previous meals I had made that me and my family loved and my crock pot. If I had to have instructions for making a particular meal, I typed in the ingredients as well as the instructions in the note portion of the event on the calendar.

If you don't have a Google account I seriously urge you to get one so that you can use the Calendar. Its a life saver and now it makes cooking somewhat enjoyable because the stress of being ignorant of what we are having is gone. An added bonus to it all is that I can now shop according to whats on the menu for the week and that cuts down on the grocery bill.

Since Google allows you to embed your calendar I'm going to let you benefit from that mind numbing, brain twisting work that I went thru for those two weeks and let you see my menu. If it's possible. Good Luck!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Eating out is HIGHLY overrated so Sams, here I come!

I have made a pact with myself that we will not be eating out anymore. That's really saying something coming from the Queen of Eating Out herself since I suck at menu planning and I HATE HATE HATE cooking.

What brought about this 180? Earlier this month me and my fam of 5, well 6 if you count the baby but she wasn't eating, were dining at Carrabbas and the bill came up to be $80. 80 frakin dollars. I was thinking to myself, Self, I could have made 4 meals for the price of this 1 bland tasting, them charging mucho dinero and putting nada on the plate meal. So with that my mind was made up. No more eating out. Period. Its just not worth it. I mean whatt do they think I am, stupid? Like the Queen wouldn't notice that they are cutting corners on how they prepare the food so it don't even taste the same all the while they give you a plate the size of a saucer to make it look like they are being generous with the proportions. Riiiiiiight like I'm falling for that one!

Anyway since I'm now resigned to the kitchen I decided to pay Sams a visit and waddaya know, I spent $181 on food that will last us at least 2 weeks. So even though I cannot STAND cooking, I do feel good about saving money and controlling how it tastes and how much food goes on my plate.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Caruso Rollers Revisited

I went out tonight to meet some friends from my old stomping ground LHCF (more on that later).

Before I left I decided to dust off my Carusos and bump the ends of my hair. I meant to take a pic of the hair with the curlers in but I forgot. Plus I do have another blog here with the rollers in.

I like using the Carusos because it only takes about 5 minutes to put in and by the time you are done with one side, the other side is already curled up. So you can have a head of curls without heat in a matter of minutes.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Why didnt I know...

that I have a big gaping hole in my midsection????


I went to my midwife for my 6 week check up and this is what she told me. She laid me down and told me to lift my head while she felt on my stomach. She told me that my abdominal muscles were separated. This is how its supposed to be.











But this is how mine looks.  She let me feel and and yes, there is a 3 or 4 inch gap between my abdominal mucles. She informed me that not doing anything to fix it can render lots of problems down the road like lower back pain. Ahhh...no thanks. I gots to fix it. It can happen after a pregnancy but thats not the only cause.

Abdominal separation/diastasis recti reduces the integrity and functional strength of the abdominal wall and can aggravate lower back pain and pelvic instability. Separation in a previous pregnancy significantly increases the probability, and severity, of the condition in subsequent pregnancies. Women expecting more than one baby, petite women, those with a pronounced sway back, or with poor abdominal muscle tone are at increased risk. Genetics can also plays a big role. For some women, it simply how their bodies respond to pregnancy.

This simple self-test will help you determine if you have abdominal separation/diastasis recti

1.
Lie on your back with your knees bent, and the soles of your feet on the floor.
2.
Place one hand behind your head, and the other hand on your abdomen, with your fingertips across your midline—parallel with your waistline— at the level of your belly button.
3.
With your abdominal wall relaxed, gently press your fingertips into your abdomen.
4.
Roll your upper body off the floor into a “crunch,” making sure that your ribcage moves closer to your pelvis.
5.
Move your fingertips across your midline, feeling for the right and left sides of your rectus abdominus muscle.




Now you have got to be asking yourself how you can fix it. This link has a lot of good tips. My midwife gave me a handout of the Tuplar Technique but its too much to type out here. Its a 4 step program but its similar to the link above. The lady who came up with this technique, Julie Tuplar, did an interview here that was quite informative. If you discover your stomach is just as jacked up as mine, fix it! LOL!!!

Monday, January 11, 2010

A french braid to break the monotony


I've been wearing buns for a while and true to form, I got bored real quick. I decided to add some variety by wearing a braid. I haven't worn one of these in a while so I decided to braid my hair up real quick. I'll see how long it takes before I get bored with this. Lol! :-)

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Thankful

Im sitting here now feeling a bit sorry for myself. Well, not exactly sorry for myself but slightly irritated. Im irritated with my skin. I have been battleing acne ever since I was 14 years old. Im now 31 and I think its high time Im done with dealing with this.

I have gone to a derm and the meds I was on worked wonders and my skin finally looked good enough for me not to want to hide away in my home and not want to meet new people, not want to go out in public, not want people to look at me when I talked to them, not to feel like I look ugly. I was estatic to have my skin look like it did when I was 13. More or less.

I got pregnant and had to get off the meds and surprise surprise the acne came back. Now that I can take my meds again for some reason its making my skin look even more horrible than it was when I was pregnant. Im now back in the same rut as before, ashamed to be seen, not wanting to meet new people, ect.

Then I got to thinking. Im sitting here complaining about bad skin, and some people dont even have skin at all. Maybe they are a burn victim or suffer from a genetic disorder of some sort. Im complaining about my skin being jacked up when there is at least one person I know who doesnt even have a face! Think of the Connecticut woman whose friends chimp ripped her face off.

My point is, no matter how bad we think we have it, there is someone who has it worse. I remember growing up my father used to say that if 5 people had to put their problems on a piece of paper and fold it and put it in a hat and if you reach in and randomly pick a problem then it would be yours, would you want to accept it? Of course I wouldnt because 9x out of 10 their problem is worse than yours.

So instead of whining and complaining and hurting myself by dwelling on what my skin is, I am going to concentrate of what my skin isnt or what it could be. Im going to be thankful for what I have instead of what I dont because it could always be worse.

Mama Cloth - What It Is & Why I Love It

You may or may not have heard of Mama Cloth but just in case you havent I'll clue you in on what it is.

*drumroll please*


They are reusable menstrual pads. Ok before you get the "Oh hayl no" face let me explain why its not as bad as you think.

The same online friend who introduced me to cloth diapering also explained to me the menstrual pads and how they work. At first I had the "Oh hayl no" face but then I thought about the logic of it all. For me, since I am already washing diapers I figured it wouldnt hurt to wash pads too. I figured I would give it a shot at least once so I decided to use them for my postpartum bleeding. A lot of people get grossed out with the thought of seeing the blood and what not ( for tampon users) and lots of people get squeamish with the thought of rinsing out pads. Well, if you are a pad wearer and you get an "Oopsie!" in your underwear or clothes what do you do? You rinse it out. At least I hope you do. ;-) If you have no problem rinsing out those accidents that you have with disposables then rinsing reusables arent that far of a stretch. Some people dont even rinse theirs out rather, they simply soak them in a container until wash day. I dont do that. Its better for me to just rinse away.

Anyway Im getting a little ahead of myself here. First let me explain more about what a Mama Cloth pad is. Its made of a variety of cloths from fleece, to organic bamboo valour. No matter what cloth you get, its very soft against your girlie parts. They come in many different colors, shapes, and designs. Personally I prefer minkee, which is a softer type of fleece. The pic above are a few of the ones I have in rotation. Oftentimes the maker of the pad will use prints that will disguise any stains that you may get. Speaking of stains, there arent any on any of my pads, as you can see from the picture. What I do is after I take it off I rinse them with cold water and squeeze until the water comes out clean. I have a bottle of peroxide in my bathroom that I spray the pad down with. If theres anything left on it ( which there hardly ever is) I can literally see it melt away before my eyes. If this doesnt work, putting the wet pad in the sun to dry will magically lift the stain also.
I know you must be wondering how does one wear these things out in the public? How do you change it? Where do you put the dirty one? They have these cute little wetbags that you put your pads in. I like ones that have a side for your clean unused pads, and the other side for your dirty ones. This is the one that I use and the inside of it. You can see the two sides.
 


These pads fold up really cute too. You put them on by using the snaps, so when you have to take them off when you are way from home, they can be folded  wrong side out for when you need to put the dirty ones in the wetbag. You can even pull out the folded pad out in front of a room full of men and they will be none the wiser! ;-)
Here are the reasons why I love Mama Cloth verses disposables or tampons.

1. They dont sweat at all!!! Its not hot down there so there is no sweaty smell that you get from disposables. These are made of cloth so they breath and you dont get that stuffy, sweaty feeling.

2. They dont move and I mean they do NOT move or shift at all. With disposables, they bunch and move causing leaks and those "Oosies!" that we all hate. Not so with these pads. They snap in place instead of being put in with tape and because of the fleece backing, it makes them stay put better than the disposables.

3. Speaking of snaps, you no longer have your hair being pulled out. OUCH!!! Everybody has had hairs being ripped out because of the tape used on disposables pads. Dont act like you dont know! LOL!

4. No leaks. I havent had a leak yet. No, not one single leak.

5. Its so much softer on my girly bits. Sometimes I forget that its even there, thats how comfortable it is.

6.This may be TMI so read no further on this number 6 if you dont want to be yucked. I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE the oozing feeling that you get when wearing a pad. This is why I quit with pads and wore a Diva Cup for a year or two. I mean with sposies, I could feel the blood just oozing in all the cracks and crevices and it made me feel sooooooo gross! As God is my witness, I have yet to feel that oozing nasty yuck feeling while wearing a cloth pad. That alone was a slam dunk for me.

7. Its much more pleasant to look at!

8. Once you buy Mama Cloth you wont have to buy another pad again for years. They pay for themselves after a few months.

9. I am not a super conservative environmentalist, but I am sorta happy that I am reducing waste in landfills. :-)

10. There are no chemicals pressed up against your most sensitive parts, which according to what I read causes most womens menstrual cycles to shorten. The chemicals found on pads and tampons cause women to menstruate longer and heavier thereby causing you to buy more pads/tampons which translates in to more cha CHING! for the pad companies. Unfortunately for me I am doomed to forever be a long time bleeder so :-/

11. Finally, as crazy as this sounds, it actually makes the menstruating experience tolerable. If anything can make that tolerable its worth giving a chance, you know what Im saying?

Friday, January 8, 2010

Ain't this diaper cute!

One nice thing about cloth diapering is the fact that you can get them in the cutest prints. Even though you have to put a cover on it, which by the way also comes in cute prints, you get to look at the nice designs on your babys butt at home while you're lounging instead of plain ole white.

My children really say the darndest things

My son, who is only 9, was sitting here whistling the theme music from the Extenz commercial continually because he said he "couldnt get it out of his head."


My 3 year old asked me for some soda and I told her no. She comes back with "BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

I was fussing at my son and I said something like, I get mad when you...Well my 3 year old proceeds to tell me "Don't get mad, get glad!"

My son heard these people laughing really loud and he said "they must be drunk."

My 3 yr old said she had a headache because her brain was mad at her.

My 3 yr old put 1 ball under her shirt in the middle of her chest and said "Look at me! I got big breasts! I just need one more breast."

 

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Endless chatter

OMG my children run their mouths a million miles a minute. I talking about all 3 of them do it constantly. What makes it even worse is that sometimes I'll have one child in one ear, and another child in the other at the same time. Both will be competing with each other over who can talk the loudest and who I am going to acknowledge first. While this is going on child #3 is across the room throwing out a philosophical questions one after the other. What am I doing during all this? Trying not to have a serious " Calgon take me awaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!" moment.

I just sit there and look at all 3 of them and not say a word and think to myself, thank God I have these little people here to spit all this endless chatter my way! :-)

Gripe Water for colic - made my way

Gripe Water? What in the world is THAT??? That was the first thing I thought when someone suggested I buy this for my colicky baby. Me and Chris spent an entire night laboring with our baby whos stomach must have felt like razor blades cutting thru it. Thats how gas feels, I know. I have had gas get stuck in my guts and let me tell you, it feels worse than razor blades cutting your middle. It breaks my heart to hear a baby screaming with gas pain because essentially theres not much you can do.

Theres the Mylicon drops you can buy but I have had 3 other children and those drops never worked one iota for any of them. Then I got hip to this Gripe Water. I Googled it to see what it was and what it was made of. Its basically herb infused water that acts to sooth and calm the stomach and intestinal tract. The ingredients vary according to the manufacturer but they generally include dill, ginger, fennel, and chamomile. Some of them have alcohol in it as well as sodium bicarbonate, sugar and water. Well, what do you know! I had some of these ingredients in my pantry so I decided to just make my own.

Of course I wasnt going to put alcohol in it and I dont have any sodium bicarbonate but I did have the ginger, fennel, chamomile, and I also threw in some catnip too. I just put the herbs in my coffee maker and percolated it into a tea. My baby is on formula ( unfortunately :-c) so when I make her bottles I put one part tea to 3 parts water and I then add the powdered milk.

I have to say that ever since I started giving her this herbal blend she has not had one instance of colic. Sure, she lets plenty of farts go, but they dont hurt her stomach at all and shes always calm and hardly ever fusses. She no longer screams at night in pain and me and her father arent up all night long in pain right along with her. Now this is how she sleeps at night and all thru the day.




Actors or just good liars?

I had a random thought today about actors and their craft. It seems like if you are a pathological liar, or one who just loves to lie, you could easily become an Oscar winning actor. Im not trying to downplay what actors do, but lets just be real and look at this thing for what it is.

We pay money for people to lie to us. These people are not who they portray themselves to be on the big or small screen, unless of course if they are playing themselves. So in essence they get paid to lie. The better and more convincing lie you tell, the more jobs you get and the more money you make. Now dont get me wrong, I am an avid movie lover. I love to watch a good movie, but the bare fact is that actors get paid to lie. It makes me wonder if they lie a lot in their personal lives too. Do you just turn off the "lie(acting) switch"? When an Academy Award winning actor gets into arguments with their SO do they wonder if they are being lie too?

This is a VERY random post but this thought or idea ran thru my mind. :-P

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

My new daily do


I actually took my time and tried to make this bun look nice. Its saturated with Generic Sebastian Potion #9. I made a YouTube video of how I do this particular bun a while back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfjwGutIOzQ Its actually pretty easy to do.

Queeny and The Fam comes to town!


I am hella late in writing about this, but my girl Queeny and her family came to SC back in the summer of 09 and they decided to pay me a visit.

They got here around 2 or so and once Queen made it inside my 3 year old sized her up. Apparently she measured up to my daughters standards so she started talking to her. I dont just mean your average convo either. She was going on and on and on. She proceeded to tell Queen about the ghost that was in me and my husbands bedroom, and how the ducks outside were going to eat her up, and many other colorful, off the wall stories. All we could do was laugh! Meanwhile, Queens 3 daughters and my older daughter and son who are all close in age, retired themselves to my office to play games on my computer.

If you dont know it, my girl Queen loves to cook and bake and me and my husband love to eat, so she throws out there that she wanted to go out to buy stuff to make a cake. Of course I couldnt let her do that. So being the gracious southern bell hostess that I am, what did I do? I sent her to the kitchen to cook dinner with food already on hand! LOL!! Hows that for southern hospitality? If I can recall, Queen cooked rice, cabbage, fried chicken wings, and mac and cheese. It was uuuummm ummm good! Just ask my husband Chris! LOL!



Anyway once she finished cooking ( Lord if my Grandma knew I let this girl come from out of town to visit and I let her cook she would kill me!!) we called the lil ones in from the computer to the kitchen to come and eat. They all sat down to the table and had a merry ole time throwing down on the food.

So after all the food was eaten Chris, Queen, and her husband Thomas, and I all sat around and just chilled. We cracked jokes and told stories and laughed and laughed and laughed! All of our children had a good time playing together too. My oldest daughter is always asking me when they are coming back to visit. Now I really dont like taking pics, but I had to get one of me and my girl.


Of course Thomas wouldnt let me take a pic of him.Why you gotta act like that??? LOL!



He did let me take one of him and Queen tho.

We had so much fun! They live in New Mexico which is a long way from here, but I cant wait for them to come back this way again. If we are ever that way, which will more than likely happen since Chris loves to eat and she loves to cook (LOL!!), we will definitely have to stop thru and visit Queen and The Fam!

Sebastian Potion #9 - My new best friend

 My hair has been suffering b/c of lack of care. Yeah I know. Bad me! LOL! Hair has been very low on the priority list as of late, but now Im back on the grind.

My hair has been feeling a little weak so I did an Aphogee Treatment. Since my hair is so long, I was afraid to let it hang down my back and totally dry out, because if you have ever done one of these before you know your hair gets hard as a rock and very brittle and any movement will break your hair off. I was scared that my hair would break between my getting out from under the dryer and getting into the shower so I pulled it in a wrapped around ponytail and pinned it up. It didnt dry all the way b/c I wasnt about to sit under the dryer of 3 hours so the treatment was half done and I got half the results.

Hmmm....whats a girl to do? I dug around in my stash and found some 3 year old Generic Sebastian Potion #9 from Sallys in my closet. I only used this once when I was natural and I didnt know it was a protien treatment. I got happy with it and slathered it on thick and let me tell you, my hair was solid as a rock the next day. Natural hair doesnt really need much protien like relaxed hair does b/c the bonds are not broken down.

Anyway I remembered this experience and decided to get happy and slather a whole lot on my hair and wrap it up in a bun made of twists and went to bed. This morning my hair feels MUCH better and MUCH stronger! I plan on doing the same thing today and my hair should be where I want it to be again.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

My eldest and my youngest.

I thought this was cute plus they look just alike! At least so far...

I just love my "toe socks" as I call them. I don't know the real name for them but its what I call them. Too bad I hardly ever see them in the stores anymore. :-(

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Buns, buns, and more buns




Life has gotten in the way of me being diligent about my hair and I can see and feel the affects of it. I had an emergency c-section and a 6 week premature baby. Who had the time for hair? Once life calmed down somewhat I decided to do an Aphogee protein treatment. I let it get 80% hard and then rinsed it out. I didnt let it get as dry as I probably should have, but only because it was about 12am and I was very tired. Because of that it didnt turn out as I would have liked. It still feels a little weak so until I feel like doing another Aphogee I'll just be wearing buns, buns, and more buns!

Avatar


All I can say is wow. Just wow. This movie was awesome!

First off, the imagery was strait eye candy. Im a sucker for forests, trees, flowers, ect and this forest was just beautiful! We saw it in 3D so it made the experience that much better. I honestly dont even have the words to adequately describe the visuals for this movie.

As far as the story line, well it really showed the mentality of those in power as it relates to the indigenous people of the planet and how they view the rights of others and how they dont respect others or the planet we live on. Bottom line.  It was very obvious to me the symbolism of the movie was not very subtle as they called the natives of Pandora "savages" and "blue monkeys." The people of the planet were blue (or people of color) and we all know that the black and native people of this country have been called savages and monkeys. The same fate of Pandora mirrors what has happened to the Native Americans and Africans and all other native people on this planet and unfortunately they have been called similar names. We cannot ignore the similarities of some of the darker people on the planet with the people of Pandora. The Na'vi wore face paint during war and wore feathers in their hair or on their garments ( reminiscent of the Native Americans). The Na'vi also had very prominent features such as large lips as well as large noses and wore braids with beads and other ornaments ( reminiscent of Africans). Im sure you see where Im going with this.

This movie also has the theme of a "white saviour" which as I watched the movie reminded me of movies like Dances With Wolves where a white man comes into a native tribe and learns their ways and thereby becomes one of them. Afterwards in a battle or series of battles, he saves them and becomes the hero. This story has been repeated many times and this author summed it up nicely. I wont repeat it here but again, all this was very obvious with this movie.

All that said, it was still an awesome movie. There were lots of spiritual messages as well. The oneness of God was a major theme. It showed how man, nature and the Creator can and should live in complete harmony with each other and when we do, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish. It shows how with unity you can defeat your enemies in the face of apparent insurmountable odds with the backing of God. The movie touches on male/female relationships and how if done properly, it shows how the two can accomplish what they will, together. I could go on and on. Point is, go see it! ;)

Friday, January 1, 2010

2010

I am not one who makes new years resolutions because I never seem to be able to keep them. Instead I declare intentions. I have declared only a few intentions for 2010.

I really dont like cooking. Matter of fact I HATE cooking but heres the dilemma. I LOVE eating. See, if I have to cook, it kills my appetite and I wont want to eat once its done. Weird I know, but it is what it is unfortunately. Then I have this little thing where I a not very good at menu planning. So, here is what I am intending to do. Expand my menu making skills and cook at home more. I spend too much money eating out.

I really need to cut back on my online time. Its gonna be kinda hard since I have to sit in front of the computer teaching my children, but I dont think I have to count that time. Id go insane sitting there being bored to death teaching multiplication tables and climates around the world if I couldnt be on Facebook and reading blogs So, if Im not dong schoolwork I intend to drastically cut back on my online time.

I have only read about 2 books this year. That is so not me. I usually read about 40-50 books a year so this year I intend to jump back on my book reading. I love reading so much and I miss it so I want to devote more time to reading and cramming my head with thousands of random facts and information.

*le sigh* I have a tendency to be on the negative side. Yeah, I admitted it. Yeah I said it. Now that I got that part out the way, I intend on focusing on the positive aspects of situations and not focus on the negative. I like to call what I do "calling it how I see it" but this year I intend to "see" it in a more positive light.

Above all I intend to be more grateful. God hates those who are ungrateful and I am certainly not that, but i want to express my feelings of gratitude more often than I do. He gives me so much and I could never ever repay Him for what he has done and is doing for e. The LEAST I could do is show more gratitude by expressing it to Him more, and paying it forward by helping others. This year I intend to do just that.

So with that, I say lets get started living life basking in the sunshine of a new year!