2014-12-13

Breaking Cake & I Got BOMBED: TToT

This was an interesting week. I had to write something serious, which is usually a bummer for me, but necessary for whatever reason. The lovely Lizzi THANKFULLY encouraged, inspired, helped, full-on edited my ramblings and allowed me to post my thoughts on some of the worst things in the news here in the U.S. 

I'm thankful to Sisterwives Speak blog for allowing me to post there and have more than my 13 readers have access to that. Click >>here<< to read about that  if you're interested

I'm deeply thankful to Lizzi for her support, encouraging me to step outside my comfort zone in Alice's Wonderland of madness into more serious subjects. It may not seem like much, but my taking the time to put troubling thoughts into coherent sentences, and form a complete post on the subject, is very cathartic. I doubt I was able to give anyone much to think about, but it was nice to be able to get it out there in whatever way possible. 


Thankfully, the comments were all polite, even those that disagreed. I have seen some of these subjects not well received, and that is part of why I-- why we ALL need to voice our opinions. 

Open dialogue in a safe place between people of all kinds, from all different areas and different experiences, is the best way we can understand each other and all feel part of the SAME TEAM. The Sisterwives Speak blog of course has intelligent lovely followers. Of course they do.

We're getting ready for the holidays, and thankfully remaining comfy. We try not take on more than we can handle, as is our way. We don't go crazy at holiday time, that gets to be too much. I'm thankful we know our limits. We take a family picture to send in some cards, we put up a tree and some inside decorations and lights. Thankfully our children are happy with that.

We're going to make some Christmas-ey cookies this year, not a huge batch from scratch that takes all day, just a few different ideas for holiday treats. We always do some kind of craft for whatever season, I'm thankful my Lola loves to do crafts. She's always so proud of making something. 

We do minimal presents, and thankfully my husband reminds me to keep it small so we don't feel we have to out-do the year before. My children are still young, we're trying to keep the season from turning into just PRESENTS. At least for as long as we can. We figure maybe one more year ? :)

After focusing on the bad news I had written about, I'm thankful to announce a fantastically GREAT package came in the mail from none other than the beautiful, world famous published author Lizzi Rogers! Very exciting! International air mail, for little old US. 
Of course it was filled with fun, *sparkly-twinkley-goodness* (I'm not nearly as good as that as Lizzi is) and fun, happy things. 
My kids played in the glitter, and made little bracelets for their stuffed animals with it!
My Lola said "I love this stuff!" We played, wore mustaches, well the 2 yr old wanted no part of that because: 2. 
T-Rex arms & selfies don't go well together
She did, however, love the cake erasers and we all had a cake eraser tea party, here we are doing "Cake Cheers!"
Fun! They're STILL playing with the glitter 40 minutes later!

I'm thankful for having met Lizzi, and looking forward to one day really having cake WITH Lizzi! Not just Skype cake, though that sounds pretty fun, too, but sometime next year when she graces our land with her presence, we shall break cake together.  By that I mean eat cake, not just break cakes. That's senseless cruelty to cakes.
NNOOOOOOOO! Save the innocent cakes! from eatingrecipe.com
I'm so grateful for Lizzi's glitterbombs, the world needs more of these lovely bombs. Her post today is full of goodbombs and it's making me listen to The Smiths "Louder Than Bombs" which someone thankfully uploaded the whole album to YouTube. Thank you, lovely people who do this! We challenged people enjoy having free things to listen to while we try to get exercise. Here is the WHOLE ALBUM.
I'm also thankful for my family, who helped me when I was younger and who always help me and long story short have again, and to celebrate we're going out to dinner at a grown-up restaurant that doesn't even have crayons. (I always have some in my bag, no worries!) That is worth more than 10, and the Book of Secret Rules BoSR/SBoR clearly states the sum of the parts are worth more than the numbers, or something like that. I don't speak fluent Guard-Virginian. 

This post was much more fun than last week and part of the best blog community yet invented, the Ten Things of Thankful.






23 comments:

  1. YES! THERE SHALL BE CAKE! And it will be AWESOME :D I can't wait. I'm really, REALLY looking forward to cake with you :D

    Glad your glitterbomb arrived in one piece, and that you all had such fun with it :D That's super :D

    YAY!

    And thanks again for your writing at Sisterwives...it was an important piece.

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    1. It was, thanks for the support. For whatever reason I feel better having made the effort.
      Thanks again a MILLION times for the bomb! It was superBIGfun!
      I just found glittery cake topping at the store, so we'll be experimenting with glitter cake! Edible, of course. Well, the GLITTER says it is, my making a cake? That will take practice.

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    2. Cake is easy. I have faith in you :D

      YAY to fun :D

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  2. awesome! I read your serious post as well.. I didnt comment forgive me... reading right now is a big deal... I mean breathing... in...out..in....out seems to be a challenge so I will say here instead... nice job. Its not easy to deal with the serious stuff... I have mixed feelings about a lot of stuff but wow... just wow... I dont even know what to say....and after all this rambling now you know why I didnt leave a comment. I can be a senseless idiot here and feel comfy... (see what I did there?) ... Nice mustache btw!

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    1. No worries m'Lady. I struggle to even get everything read most weeks right now. I save things in my email inbox until eventually I have hundreds of things back-logged and I have to just delete most of it so I don't cry.
      It's definitely NOT easy for me to talk about serious things, especially if I can't add any humor. I just couldn't do it. I actually saw other things that were funny, under the "laugh so we don't cry" but I just did not have it. Maybe I lost it, maybe I never HAD it with the serious stuff. I don't even have time to wonder. Mayhaps one day. I'm just glad I met you and Lizzi and the good people in this community. I'm glad you're COMFY here, you should be!
      Hope to get back into the vidchat habit again real soon! MISS YOUR FACES! I mean not that you have multiple faces, I mean the faces of the group. See now I'm rambling! (I'm always rambling, it's all good!)

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  3. Hey, not only were people polite, but you were stunningly fair and polite right back! I was SO IMPRESSED with your responses even to people that I know must have gotten you all riled up (or got me all riled up). Your article was great, and your responses were great!

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    1. Thank you, Sarah. I never mind people disagreeing with me, though my responses depending on my mood :) but I generally feel like I never learn anything from people that agree with me all the time. And there aren't many people that agree with me ALL the time. Even a lot of the responses that said they agreed on some points, almost all added a "but...." and went on with some point to cover their butts with anyone in law enforcement. Which is fine, law enforcement officers do need our support, especially family and of course there are many hard-working people risking their safety for ours, BUT (I can do it too) that doesn't mean they shouldn't follow the rules and be expected to treat everyone fairly. If people with tough jobs could just do anything in any way they see fit, we're back to complete anarchy. I was glad for the exchange of opinions and ideas. I'm glad for ANY comments on my writing, whatever they are. Open dialogue with people is how I learn a lot of good stuff! Thanks for reading and for your feedback!

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  4. Glad that people were polite when managing differences, which is such a rarity! WTG!

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    1. That is a good point, Michelle. Often when I read online articles if my eyes wander down to the comments it's usually heart-breaking. A lot of blog readers have a better way with words, making it much more pleasant to interact.

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  5. I need to read your article. Having Lizzi as a mentor - incredible.

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    1. Lizzi is incredible. She's the reason I haven't shut this whole blog down. For so long I felt like I was putting more into it than I was getting out of it. Until Lizzi. Now I get much more enjoyment from starting this than I ever imagined.

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    2. *glowy* I SAW that! No wonder they called you Joy :D

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  6. Looks like you and your kids are having so much fun! I miss those times when my boys were younger. We're having a lean Christmas too this year and I'm thankful that everyone understands.

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    1. It goes by so quickly. Even when some of the days feel like a week, you blink and they're in school and becoming independent. I know this, my son is 19 somehow, so I make sure to enjoy these fleeting moments!
      It's great when family can see the real importance at times like these.

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  7. I really like your blog…. 'cause the second to last photo? it triggered a (variation) on a scene from an old movie…. 'Scanners'

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    1. That sounds REALLY familiar. I love horror movies, and I think I've seen that. I'm going to have a chat with Google about that.

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  8. There is no time limit on playing with glitter. It is fascinating stuff!

    I read your piece. Very well said.

    Cake eraser tea party...the cutest!

    We do small presents mostly. Normally one or two big things and Dollar tree for everything else. We have never competed to out do last year which I am thankful for. Less pressure!

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    1. Too true. All of that. It's nice when the kids can be happy with one thing. It's tempting for me to want to spoil them, and I'm glad my husband reminds me that's a bad idea.
      Thanks for reading my article. I appreciate that.

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  9. Glitter is NEVER a mistake. Messy, yes. A mistake, no.

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  10. Surprise glitterbomb packages are, well da bomb!
    I need to go read your post for Sisterwives. I'm so behind in my reading, I know I'll never completely catch up.
    Christmas just gets too complicated, doesn't it? I think that's why so many people get depressed during the holidays. No one can live up to the expectations we see on tv and movies.
    I DO like cake....

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  11. I think it's the feeling at Christmas rather than the stuff that is most important. It makes no sense to try to cram so much in that the good will is replaced with a ton of stress. Good job for knowing your limits!

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  12. Lizzi's packages are indeed glittery! Love the penguin bracelets. :)
    I also love that your family focuses on not going overboard for the holidays - we try to do that, too. It's so easy to get caught up in the "stuff" of Christmas and forget about what really matters. We have always made our focus the time we spend together. It makes all the rest fall into place.
    Have a great week!

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  13. Love the mustaches!! :)

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