Insanity

Let me preface this by saying that I have ALWAYS wanted to be a stay at home mom. I am VERY thankful to have the opportunity to be home with my beloved son and spend as much time as I can with him while he is young. I now that there are many woman who would love to be in my shoes and think things like "if I stayed home my house would be spotless b/c I would have all the time in the world to clean" I thought this before I started my career as a SAHM. It just isn't the case I have several other SAHM friends and we all complain about the same things. It is not easy juggling all your responsibilities of woman, mother, wife, cook and maid. Inevitably something gets a little less attention than it should. For me it is maid.....

I am going to go ahead and throw this out there...I am NO neat freak. I HATE cleaning. I tell my husband all the time "I am a GREAT stay at home mom. William is taken care of every second of the day. I am a HORRIBLE house wife" :) I hate cleaning, all of it, vacuuming, dishes, laundry, dusting, windows, floors, bathrooms etc. etc. etc. Here is my problem with cleaning. While I hate cleaning I hate having a dirty house just as much. The cleaning is never done and as soon as you get done cleaning something it is dirty again. This frustrates me to no end!!

I wake up in the morning to the dishes that were not done the night before, I put them in the dish washer (which is honestly just a dish sanitizer b/c it cleans NOTHING. If there is even one speck of food on the dish when it goes in it will be there when I take it out.). If it is full of clean dishes then they have to be put away before the dirty dishes can be put in. Now that that is done more dishes accumulate throughout the day. 

SOOO though out the day I am dealing with said dishes. Sometimes I am good and will put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher as soon as we are done with them. But, to be honest most of the time I don't. I have other things to tend to. e.g. cleaning what ever William has decided to spill/pour/throw/drop onto the floor, dirty diapers, sorting the laundry, folding the latest load of laundry that is now dry, making meals, cleaning up the meals, all the while my beloved son in holding onto my leg/skirt/shirt/pants etc screaming for me to hold him, play with him, give him a big hug or kiss his boo boo. He also loves to "help" me with my cleaning which inevitably ends up being more work for me.

Now we are at the end of the day and the clothes that were just cleaned have been cleaned again, and the dishes that were clean this morning have now collected in the sink again and once again I have to clean the table, floor and kitchen so that I can cook dinner so that the table, kitchen, floor and dishes can get dirty again and AGAIN be cleaned!!!!  

The definition of insanity if doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. I have decided that this is just madness and it must stop!! 

So, beware if you come to my house this summer...I have decided that we will become raw food eating/barefoot/nudists/who only eat with their hands. This should free up enough time for me to vacuum, dust and clean the bathrooms! :) 

a picture a day post FAIL :)

So far I missed day 5, 7, 9 and 10 ....the picture is what really throws me. I ALWAYS have something I could talk about ;) but I don't always have a picture to go with it! I learned getting pictures from the internet can result in the inability to post my blog to FB it will claim that it is spammy :( Well enough excuses on to my post for today...

Don't you miss being able to pass out where ever you are!! 

Children...and men have this uncanny ability to just pass out were ever they are!! I can be exhausted beyond all means and it will still take me at least 30 mins to unwind and fall asleep. My husband on the other hand will complain that he is not tired at all and then three seconds later he is snoring away. Lately my son has deviate from him normal schedule (maybe he is growing). He will be playing away and all of a sudden get really quite and when I look over he is SOUND ASLEEP right where he is! It usually happens right around lunch time which is really unfortunate b/c he goes to bed hungry and only naps for a short time. If I wake him and try to get him to eat and go back to sleep he NEVER ends up going back to sleep. 

This post has been prompted by my recent struggles with the sand man...he seems to forget me :( I go through this cycle often..first I will have insomnia for a few weeks. Sometimes it gets really bad...like looking at the clock at 3:00 am and still being wide awake or going to bed at 2:00am and waking up at 5:00am unable to get back to sleep. Lucky for me as long as i can get at least 5 hours of sleep I am fully functional and feel fine. Less than 5 and I am CRANKY!! More than 8 and I am sluggish.  The next cycle is when I am tired all the time. I finally start being able to fall asleep at a normal time and all of a sudden I start falling asleep at 8:00pm and waking up at 7:00-8:00am (when ever William wakes up) I can also take a nap while William is napping still fall asleep at 8:00pm and not wake up till William does around 7 or 8am . It is ridiculous, but I guess my body is trying to catch up to all that missing sleep. It is truly the worst cycle b/c I can do well with a little amount of sleep, but too much can cause a head, back, and neck ache along with feeling slugish. Of course the last cycle is the normal sleep schedule where I go to bed and wake up rested at reasonable times. I am currently transitioning out of the insomnia cycle and into the comatose cycle hahaha I am SO tired ALL the time! I fell asleep on the couch the other night at 9:30pm woke up at 8:00 am and desperately needed a nap when William went down for his!! Hopefully this won't last long and I can get back to my normal sleeping schedule 

Here's so a good nights sleep and waking up well rested!!

Just in case you were wondering...

This is what a government shut down will mean for us...
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/government-shutdown-looms-amid-spending-debate-obama-republicans/story?id=12952627

an interesting day

First I want to say that I have not yet completed a blog a day for a week and I already failed :( I fell asleep on the couch  last night at about 9:30...In my defense I have been suffering from insomnia and obviously REALLY needed the sleep. Okay enough apologies on to the blog for today... 

There is no picture for today b/c every time I try to share my blog with FB it says the picture I chose is spammy...I chose SEVERAL different pictures and they are so NOT spammy...whatever!!

Today was one of those days that is exhausting just because it is completely different from your normal day. We woke up, got ready and took the truck to get serviced at Carmax....(a little back story) Ever since the very first time we put my son in a forward facing carseat...he gets car sick he pukes all over my truck!! I put him in a forward facing carset the day after he turned one ...like I had been told to do by my pediatrician aaaaaand he yacked all over the truck...after that he began getting carsick almost everytime we got in the car, I began begging someone anyone to tell me what I could do to help my poor little man. All the answers were the same "there is nothing that you can do he will grow out of it" I even looked it up online and all it said was to watch what you feed them before you get in the car and to have the seat in the middle, so they can look out of the front window. No one ever told me that there were extended rear-facing carseats!! I wish one person would have said "you can get him a carseat that will allow him to continue to rear face until he weighs 40 pounds..oh and by the way it is safer for him!! 

Okay off that soap box  and back to today :) We were headed out to Bartlett from Olive Branch which takes us on 3 different interstates. We were just about to pull into Carmax when William barfed :( Thank goodness it was early and all he had had for breakfast was some milk. 

I called my Mother-in-law and Carmax letting them both know that I was indeed there, but was going to need some time to clean up a rather nasty mess. Poor William kept saying he was sorry and asking me "what happened? I'm all wet." Then, as I was taking his clothes off he was screaming at me "I'm cold mamma!! stop I need my clothes I'm cold!!" luckily I had some blankets with me since he was going to be napping at my mom's house. I wrapped him all up and after that he was fine :) 

We went from there to the mall to drop my MIL off, then to her house to drop the dog off and THEN to my mom's house to wait for my dentist apt. I needed my teeth cleaned and was having an issue with a tooth he had filled...I couldn't floss in between the two teeth and it was driving me CRAZY! Thank goodness you can't see what the Doc is doing when he is doing it. It felt like he was filing in between my teeth..after it was all said and done he showed me the tool he used and it was a freaking hack saw a tiny teeth sizes hacksaw, but a hacksaw non the less!! he even said "well that worked just needed a little hacksaw and he showed it to me!! GA!! This is why I need happy gas to go to the dentist!!

After the dentist I got the call from Carmax apparently we needed a new tie rod for our suspension and something was wrong with our ERG valve..whatever!! I needed a rental car b/c they would have to wait for the parts to come in...the last time we needed a new part for the truck they had it for THREE WEEKS and kept saying the part has been ordered, the part has been ordered. Well guess what, some worker found the part and it had been sitting on the dock the WHOLE TIME. Soooooo, needless to say I am not trilled we have to wait for a part to be ordered :( oh well, I get to drive a cool gas efficient Ford Focus in the meanwhile :) (It's all about the silver lining people hahaha) I went ahead and drove straight to Enterprise and rented the car and told them I would be back to get it after I picked my MIL up from the mall. I ended up helping my MIL at work for about an hour (which I was HAPPY to do since she was helping me by driving me around and letting me borrow her car plus we work for the same company and am always happy to help my company :) when we got back to Enterprise I was expecting a very quick pick up since I had already done all the paper work and just needed the keys. Not so much, it was PACKED and it took FOREVER to get my car! I'm just SO thankful that my mom was watching William and he wasn't there with me. 

Once I got the car I headed back to my mom's house so that I could dye her hair. I love doing this for her b/c I used to dye my hair ALL the time and my mom was always the one that did it for me. After this I met my hubby at his mom's house for dinner. He cooked shish kabobs on the grill and they were DELICIOUS!!! At last we headed for home and I to my computer to blog so I could go to sleep!!! Good night my friends till tomorrow :) 

Fun times in the bathroom...

My husband asked me last night "what do you have planned for tomorrow?" My response "Nothing! we are going to have a relaxing day at home with nothing to do but play, eat and watch some t.v." I have been so busy lately I feel like I leave the house everyday! I'm ready for the long days of summer and playing outside until the sun goes down!

Well today was no lazy day at all!! It started out great. William crawled into bed with me this morning and we got to snuggle. I will do this with him every morning as LONG as he will let me :) Then I took a shower and we got ready for our day..until the hail, wind and sirens started and then we headed for the VERY small spare bathroom. Me, my son and my dog (The cat would claw me to death if I tired to get her, so she has to fend for her self!) The dog and the child were NOT happy with this situation and did NOT understand why we were in the bathroom. Luckily we didn't have to stay in there for very long (and were not directly effected by the storms). However, we were in and out three times. The sirens would go off, then back on, then off, then back on it was very frustrating and this is why I usually don't pay any attention to them to be quite honest. The high speed wind and hail is what got me moving!!
I was very lucky to not lose power that would have been a nightmare, in the pitch black bathroom! I don't think we would have survived! I need to get a flash light to store in there just in case now that I think about it....
Well this one hour ordeal threw our day for a loop. It was only about 11:30 and William was exhausted from all the excitement and he took his 2:00 nap at about 12:30 lucky for me he slept till about 3:45!! I too was exhausted form the events of the morning and after doing some laundry, crashed on the couch. I woke up when William got up and my husband was home shortly after that, so dinner needed to be cooked. I had my group meeting at 6:00 was home in time to put William to bed...only to remember that I was washing his sheets before the tornadoes and had forgotten to put the load into the dryer. I HATE when this happens!!! So my son is sleeping on sheets with no crib cover, and the blanket from the couch :) He thinks it's pretty cool so we'll go with it.
As soon as he went to bed I hopped on the computer to complete my blog for the day and I will be headed to bed myself. I have unfortunately been suffering from insomnia lately (last night I fell asleep about 1:30 and woke up at 5:00am :( Hence the reason my daily blogs have been done around 12:00-1:00am. BUT NOT TONIGHT :) it is only 9:40 and I really hope to be asleep before midnight tonight..wish me luck.
Sorry for the grammar, punctuation and spelling errors...the lack of sleep is really getting to me!
I pray for all the families that were effected by the storms today may you find peace and comfort tonight especially the Bennett family...Amen

Food for thought

In an effort to save some money each month I started shopping according to the meals I planned on making for the next two weeks. I start by sitting down and writing out what I plan on cooking and which nights, planning for all the things that may come up or have been planned for the next two weeks. I do NOT cook every night, typically I cook one night, have left overs and a do it yourself night, etc. etc. etc. I have tried to do this in the past but never really stuck to it or would inevitably change my mind about what I wanted to cook.  I would make a list, go to the store and buy everything on the list along with a ton of stuff that I just thought I might need if I decided to maybe cook this or that...THEN several times during the week I would figure out that I was missing an ingredient for the meal I had decided to cook and I would run to the store send Matt to the store and pick up what we needed plus a few extras...It was getting OUT OF CONTROL! We were spending waaaay too much money on groceries!!

So I told Matt that I would only shop when he got paid, I would plan according to meals and when something ran out then it would have to wait till the next pay check (except milk my baby boys has GOT to have his milk!) 

I sat down the first pay period and began writing out the meals I would cook for the next two weeks and quickly figured out ....I only had a few staple meals that I new how to cook! It was SO hard to plan for two weeks I could't come up with enough meals!! This was ridiculous!! I hopped on the computer and began searching for new recipes...I have found SEVERAl new recipes that I LOVE and have become staples in my house. Now I have to warn you the only red meat we eat is steak and we have that once every few months :) So all my recipes are chicken, turkey (I only use ground turkey and turkey sausage) and seafood. 

**I know this is supposed to a A picture a day but this blog has several :) 

OLIVE GARDEN® ZUPPA TOSCANA

http://www.tuscanrecipes.com/recipes/olive-garden-zuppa-toscana.html

Olive Garden Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

http://www.copykat.com/2010/02/28/olive-garden-chicken-and-gnocchi-soup/

EASY CHICKEN SOUP

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1639,148187-253202,00.html

soup was my first adventure into new recipes. A friend of mine was kind enough to share her recipe for Olive Garden's soups. I LOVE soup for two reason 1. they are a one pot meal...less dishes = happy mama 2. you can freeze some of it for a later meal ...p.s. Cut the red pepper flakes to 1/2 tsp in the Toscana soup, cut flour to 2 TBS and add exrtra can of broth in the Gnocchi soup and add a can of cream of chicken soup to the chicken soup recipe :) 

Lent is what inspired me to look for an easy crab cake recipe. I LOVE all kids of seafood so I wanted to take the opportunity alloted during Lent to move me to find a few sea food recipes. This is SUPER easy and since I use canned crab meat (found by the canned tuna) it is pretty inexpensive. I changed the recipe a little from what you see in the video. No ginger, cilantro or Jalapeños..I use green onion, red pepper and garlic...I also use crushed butter crackers opposed to bread crumbs. I baked the cakes at 350 for 15 mins on each side. Once I have flipped them I put the asparagus in the oven with the crab cakes with just a little olive oil and seasoning.  

 Crunchy onion crusted salmon, spinach salad and sweet potato( we eat a lot of sweet potatoes :) 

I saw this recipe on Parents.com I would add the link but you have to be a member to access the recipe. It is so super easy and yummy that I cooked it two nights in a row! 

honey mustard

French's fried onions

salmon steak

spinach

sweet potato

Baste the salmon in honey mustard and add some salt. Crush the onions in a bag and pour on top of the salmon. Bake in oven at 350 for 12-14 mins. microwave the potato add spinach salad to plate...that's it! 

I use frozen individually wrapped salmon steaks from Sam's. I can pull out as many as I need and they defrost super fast. If you don't like fish substitute fish for chicken and change the cook time accordingly. 

Broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken with creamy rice**another Parents.com recipe**

This recipe is super easy and yummy. I like meals that have everything in one, protein, veggie and bread.

Ingredients

• 4    boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (2-1/4 pounds)
• 4  ounces (1/2 package)  1/3-less-fat cream cheese
• 1  package  frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
• 1/2  cup  shredded cheddar
• 2  tablespoons  seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2  teaspoon  each salt and pepper
•   Egg noodles (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°. Remove tenders from chicken; reserve for another use. Cut a pocket into breasts, cutting into but not through. Soften cream cheese slightly.

2. In a large bowl, combine broccoli, both cheeses, bread crumbs and 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Stuff a scant 1/3 cup into each chicken breast. Secure with toothpicks.

3. Season chicken with remaining 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Brown chicken over medium-high heat in two batches in a nonstick skillet for 3 minutes. Transfer chicken to a baking dish. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes, until cooked through. Serve with egg noodles alongside, if desired. 

Last but not least..Quiche! A member of my mommy group at church brought a quiche for us one morning. I can't remember the last time I had a quiche, but I was reminded how much I love them! This spurred me to seek out a spinach quiche recipe. I got this one from my mom :) It is super easy and very yummy! I am completely addicted and have already made this twice in the past two weeks 

1 frozen deep dish pie

3eggs

1 pkg spinach

1 pkg cheddar cheese

2 TBS flour

1 cup milk

1 lb turkey sausage

red pepper flake, and salt to taste

Mix the flour and cheese, beat the egg, defrost the spinach and squeeze the water out, cook the sausage, mix all ingredients together, pour in dish and  bake 350 for 45-60 mins

I have many more recipes that I have tried or plan to try soon, but these are the ones I have pictures of :)  I have really become addicted to looking for new recipes to try with ingredients I have not used yet. When Matt see's me on the computer and asks what I am doing I tell him "Research for my job" hehehe :) I LOVE cooking again and instead of seeing it as a pain in my neck I do it with great joy...the dished are another story : / (I am blessed to have a hubby who will usually step in on my behalf :) 

**If you have a favorite recipe that is easy and has few ingredient please share with me! 

It's a great day to be alive :)

I said a blog a day and I have 36 minutes to get this blog in today :)

There is never a dull moment in the Hatley house :) 

This is how my son plays with a soccer ball net...is there any other way? hahaha I love how we spend thousands of dollars to make sure that our kids have the best clothes, the latest movies and more toys then they could ever play with and all they want is to play with is empty boxes, kitchen utensils, dog toys, watch the same episode of Thomas/Veggie Tales (Larry Boy is getting REALLY old!) over and over and OVER again and run around naked!! I think the system is seriously flawed!!

Even knowing all of this I am still lying in bed right now and making a list of all the things I want to get  William for his third birthday..things he HAS to have  does not really need.  Matt and I have found ourselves in a very bad habit. Every time we go to the store William ends up getting a toy. Usually it is VERY cheap (dinosaurs form the $1 bin ROCK) but every now and then he gets something bigger. It actually makes it a lot easier to get things we need or want him to have. Instead of waiting for a birthday or holiday and spending a ton of money at once we spend a few dollars here and there. 

Well Matt ran to the store the other night because I needed something for the recipe I was cooking. He picked me up one of  those pasta strainers as a surprise gift. When he got home he announced "Mama has a surprise!" William was so excited about MY surprise...until he figured out that HE did not get a surprise. He threw a huge temper tantrum! Screaming "I want a surprise!! Where is MY surprise" after a little explaining he started to calm down, but the truth was out there....Our child is becoming a SPOILED BRAT!! We only have ourselves to blame! We decided that we needed to curb the buying a little. Now that it is getting warmer we are focusing less on t.v and toys and more on playing outside, creating crafts and going on outings to the library, park, zoo, children's museum and big back yard. We are starting to shake off the stuffy, cooped up, stir crazyness of winter and embracing the fresh air of the great outdoors. 

Stolen Idea/the great paci debate

I stole this idea from a friend who stole it from another friend ...Thanks Sara and Sara's friend :)
I started this blog not too long ago and just haven't been able to get it really started. I keep thinking "I don't have anything to blog about". "I will blog when something great happens, then I'll have something to write about". Well  I have decided that if I wait for something big or great to happen I may never blog again hahaha. Seriously I need to recognize the great things that happen in my life everyday. SO I am going to do a picture a day blog for the month of April. Each day there will be a new picture and a new blog...I can't promise anything fantastically hilarious will happen, or that some major event in my life will be blogged about...This is just an everyday account of ordinary things that happen in my daily life. Things that I am extraordinarily blessed to be a part of each day.  I also have the added problem of being long winded, scatter brained and random :) Through this I will have ONE thing to focus on.

Without further ado here is my picture for today

I think we have a serious paci addiction problem!!

I know my son is getting closer and closer to three years old (which makes me want to burst into tears) and more and more people feel the need to make comments like "give me that paci, your not a baby" or "your too big for that paci' or  (being down right rude) "It's about time you got rid of that don't you think"? YES YES people I KNOW he's too big for a paci, but he is so darn addicted to that thing I am NOT looking forward to taking it away. He's not old enough to understand why I am taking it away he would think I was just being mean. Every time we talk about being a big boy he responds with I'm not a big boy I'm Little!!" Plus I am NOT int he habit of punishing MYSELF! hahaha 

I keep setting different times for taking the paci away, but something always come up. I SWORE I would take it away only let him have it at night when he transitioned into a big boy bed. Well he's been in a big boy bed since Dec 26th and he still has that paci ALL DAY. I have tried to make it a sleep time only thing but when I take one away he finds one somewhere in the house I swear it's like magic!! (It makes me wonder if that is why I can only find two of the ten pacis we own...he's hording them somewhere!!) When I try to limit the time he has with his paci I can always come up with a reason why he needs it. I would say he could have it a night,or  in the car, or if we were out somewhere, and of course I give it to him when he is screaming over and over I want my paci, pcai mamma I need my paci!!!  really upset it calms him down....okay the list keeps getting longer and leaves NO TIME WITHOUT THE PACI hahaha 

I know I need to bite the bullet and take it away, but it is sooo hard and now to make it worse he has decided he is afraid of the shadows in his room and is not sleeping very well at all. I feel we need to get through this before I take the only thing that helps him self soothe away. However, once this has passed I'm sure there will be another reason not to do it and another and another. At this point I'm not sure who is more addicted to the paci, William...or me!!

Been a busy few days!

So when I decided to quit my teaching job to be a SAHM I pictured days filled with time spent at home planning play dates and having plenty of time to get everything done. My house would be spotless, dinner on the table every night etc. etc. etc blah blah blah. 90% of the time I feel like a chicken with my head cut off!!

Wednesday was the third day in a row that William decided that 6:20am was a totally reasonable time to wake up....vastly different from our usual 8:00-8:30 wake up. However, trying to be optimistic I reminded myself that waking up at this time would ensure that we would make it to morning mass on time. We did in fact make it to church early which is not necessarily a good thing. I am using this morning mass as a teaching tool for my toddler. I want William to learn how to behave properly during mass without having to be in the cry room. 

It stresses me out to be in this room. The cry room was designed as an area where parents could teach there children how to behave properly during mass, without disturbing the other people. Unfortunately some parents don't use the room properly. What actually happens is children run around talking and playing as loudly as they would in the nursery and no one in the room is able to listening to anything going on in the service. 

Okay sorry back to my story....We got to mass about ten minutes early (that's equal to at least 30 minutes in toddler time) So by the time we got to the gospel I was losing William fast. Luckily he stayed quiet enough that I didn't hear Fr. Terry start to talk louder. (If this occurs we quickly leave to the bathroom so I can explain how important it is to be quiet in church)  after mass we went to my Mommy group. I was able to have adult time and William had play time with his friends. Mommy group finished up around 11:30 and we headed home. Normally William does not nap until 1:00-2:00 but his new 6:00am wake up time had thrown our schedule off and so he fell asleep in the car on the way home :( which means he woke up when we got home and then felt no need for a nap. :( around 3:30-4:00 I finally got him down. when he woke up things went from bad to worse.

I was already tired from my long day and was trying to cook dinner with a toddler at my feet screaming for attention, my husband was on the phone trying to get our internet fixed, the door bell rings,he hands me the phone b/c he was on hold and as soon as he does the voice asks "how can I help you" the dog is barking, William is screaming, I'm trying to talk to the woman who can't seem to find our account (at one point I said "William Hatley be quite please mommy is on the phone" and I hear the woman say  "I don't see a William Hatley either" (I laughed out loud and explained that I was talking to my son not her!) and then the microwave quite working mid heating up of our dinner!!! 

The saying "when it rains it pours" fits this scenario perfectly! I kept it together and finished heating dinner up on the stove (having to maneuver around my husband who was looking at the microwave) we sat down at the table and had a nice quiet dinner...

Thursday involved school, work(which began by being met in the parking lot by an unhappy parent...lucky me), lunch with my hubby and his co-workers at Chilie's, a trip to Best Buy to purchase a new microwave, picking William up from school and baby sitting for my friend Melanie. I left at 9:00am and didn't get home till 6:30pm....came home to a kitchen that had been pulled a part and covered with saw dust. I left to go buy dinner for that night since there would obviously be no cooking that night and then helped Matt install the new microwave. Then it was time for William's bed time routine....I went to bed early last night. 

Today I set my alarm extra early so I could get up and shower without my precious son standing at the door demanding to "shower too momma, I shower too!!!" But he beat me to it anyways. I really am struggling to adjust to this new schedule he has decided to adopt. A perk of being a SAHM is NOT having to set an alarm for really early in the morning! Well once we showered, ate breakfast and dressed we were off to get some pictures taken. William was really good during the pictures, I can't wait to get them! 

 I injured my back and have been in a lot of pain. I have to take muscle relaxers and pain meds just to sleep at night. :( If you are a praying person I as you to please pray for my back to heal. So after the pics we drove to G'town to pick up the orders for my x-rays and then went to g'town Methodist to get x-rays and THEN went to Walmart to get groceries. William fell asleep in the car ride home from Wally world and stayed asleep when we got home. He slept long enough for me to put the groceries away, do the dishes, and start on the laundry. By this time I needed to start dinner and I desperately need to vacuum our area rug. I HATE dead grass!! 

Who knew being a mommy was such HARD WORK!! Matt helped out by putting William to bed and I'm finally getting the chance to sit down. I really should be in bed b/c tomorrow is the Women's Morning of Spirituality at OLPH in Germantown and I need to get there before 8:00am since over 500 people have signed up to go :) I can't wait to go get a "faith lift" and hear Bishop Terry Stein preside over Mass. As soon as Mass is over I have to head straight to work to put in my hours and hopefully will get home shortly after 6:00pm so I can cook dinner and begin William's bed time routine.  

Speaking of William's bed time routine. Tonight after reading books he pulled his changing table pad down, laid on it and pretended to go to sleep. We laughed and told him to get into bed, he refused saying "No! I'm sleeping here!" We decided not to fight it thinking he would crawl into bed when he was ready....

I guess William decided he wanted to camp out on the floor tonight! hahaha 

A little "light" reading

One of the things that I love to do most is reading. I LOVE to read! When I get into a book hours can pass without me knowing. I become totally engrossed with the characters. I mostly read fiction books...I read to escape reality not to read about it. You will never find me pouring over a biography, I just can't do it. Shamefully I love fantasy book the most, witches and wizards, vampires and werewolves, heroes and demi-gods, magic, flying and of course the battle of Good vs. Evil. These are my guilty pleasure.

However, for the past few months I have been trying to incorporate a few spiritual books into my reading. Here is what I have found so far...

 I started with "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha's World" by: Joanna Weaver.

 It is based from the biblical story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38. Jesus and the diciples come to visit and Martha throws herself into the details of housework, cleaning and preparing for Jesus. During this her sister Mary is found sitting at Jesus' feet listening. This angers Martha and she asks Jesus to remind Mary where her rightful place is...Jesus responds by informing Martha that Mary is in fact in the right place and that she (Martha) "is worried and upset about about many things but few are needed." Lk 10:41-42 This is a book that looks into the life of every day women and reminds us that we can not do everything and that worrying every second about everything is not healthy. That we need to take time for ourselves and building a true relationship with God. One that includes more than just volunteering for anything and everything that happens at church, work or our children's school and becoming over whelmed with the tasks of each day. Some times these things that we value so deeply can in fact distract us from God and take us far away from the path he wants us to take. This book teaches you to prioritize and de-clutter your life so that you are more able to make some room for God.

The second book I want to talk about is Matthew Kelly's "Rediscovering Catholicism"

I am only up to chapter 9 in this book and have really liked it so far. I like it because it is filled with facts. Facts are easy to understand and most were quite surprising. My favorite chapter so far is chapter 8 it covers a few different Saints and their lives. I really want to add more spiritual books to my everyday reading, but I have trouble really getting into them since there are no characters or plot line to follow. This book was surprisingly easy to get into but it still a slower read for me.

The last book I want to discuss is by far my favorite. It is called "Imaginary Jesus" written by Matt Mikalatos

I stumbled across this book in Amazon's section religious/spiritual books for my Kindle and was immediately intrigued. It is exactly the kind of book I like. Matt refers to it as "sort of a true story" it includes many real life experiences and how he dealt with them as well as traveling back in time to Judea to see why Peter chose to drop everything and follow Jesus and chasing Imaginary Jesus through Portland.  Here is the review I read:

Imagine having lunch with Jesus at your favorite downtown restaurant. You are discussing Bible passages and the fact that the waiter forgot to bring the side dish to your meal. Jesus tells you he thought that might happen, which annoys you, but you can't really say anything to him about it since you often feel he is unhappy with you. The scene is interrupted by a new guest to the restaurant, one that you've never seen before. Jesus rolls his eyes at the entrance of the newcomer and hurries outside to go plug the parking meter. The new guy comes over and introduces himself as Pete. After getting a glass of water he begins to quiz you about Jesus. You are surprised that he can see him too. Then when Jesus returned to the table you are horrified when Pete and Jesus start bickering. Pete literally punches Jesus in the face who in turn makes a mad dash for the door, picking up his robes and heading for the hills. You knock Pete over with a chair, demanding an explanation for his behavior.

"That was an imaginary Jesus, my friend... and now that we are on to him he is going to run."

You cross your arms and frown. "I've known Jesus for a long time, what makes you think that you know him better than I do?"

"Because," Pete says, heading for the door, "I'm the Apostle Peter."

So opens Matt Mikalatos fascinatingly funny and creative story of purging his life of this Imaginary Jesus and the many other fake Jesus characters he finds in his life. Some aren't that easy to get rid of and others look deceptively like the real thing. In his chapters you will meet Political Jesus, Peacenik Jesus, Testosterone Jesus, 8-ball Jesus, and many others.

With a few important friends along the way, including Peter, a prostitute, two Mormon missionaries (named Laurel and Hardy), George Barna, and a talking donkey, Matt takes trips in both location and history that open up both his mind and heart to see who Jesus really is. And though it is nearly impossible to put this book down simply for the entertainment value you can't help but recognize some of the false saviors that you've been worshipping yourself.

Though this clever parable has a fun literary device it is not difficult to recognize the painful moments in Matt's life that prompted him to look for Easy-Answer-Saviors. Thankfully for him, and for his readers, he didn't stay stuck there and is on a journey of following the real deal.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this book and a highlighter or two. It is one of the funniest and thoughtful stories that you will read this year.


I know I could have written my own review of the book but this one sums it up so well and this is my blog so I can do what I want ;) 


I absolutely lOVED this book!!! I laughed, I cried, I grew closer to Jesus.  The author has done an incredible job mixing hilarious antics with deep religious thought provoking moments. This book by no means preaches to it's reader. Instead it takes us on a journey with Matt as he meets several key characters, who help him rid himself of the imaginary Jesus he has created to fill the void in him that longs for closeness with GOD. It shows us that we need to take a seriously long look at our relationship with Jesus and determine if it is a genuine relationship with the true Son of God or if it is just what WE feel a relationship with Jesus should be. 


If anyone has a suggestion or recommendation for spiritual/religious books please let me know. The next book I will begin reading is "The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis I will let you know what I think of it once I've finished :) 

Just saying Hi!

Hello...I have debated starting a blog for some time now. I really enjoy reading the blogs that my friends have, so I have finally started my own. This is a blog of my life the good and the bad. There are so many aspects of my life that I want to blog about I just don't know where to begin... I guess I will start with me.

Me:
I am a procrastinating, 29 year old, catholic, mother of a beautiful baby boy, wife of brave civil servant, stay
 at home mom, avid reader,good listener, loyal friend, lover of chocolate, good conversation and comfy pajamas, hater of dirty dishes and laundry. I have the most amazing family and friends. I feel so lucky to have both my family and Matt's family near us and we get to be involved in each others everyday lives. I am blessed to say that I do not have one best friends but several. I honestly don't know what I would do without each one of them in my life. 


My Past:
I am what they call a "military brat" I have always wondered where this term came from b/c I'm sure any "military brat" can attest to the fact that we are FAR from being brats or spoiled in any way. hahaha I have lived in a few places...I lived the majority of my early childhood (from 2nd grade through 8th grade) in Southern California and think of this as "where I'm from". I moved to Memphis, TN when I was 14 years old and I refer to Memphis as my home even though I currently live in Olive Branch, MS. I attended Craigmont high school for 9th and 10th grade and then graduated from Bartlett High in 1999. I met my husband at the ripe old age of 15 and have been with him since. We met during our church youth group trip to Florida in 1997 and were married in June 2005 after nearly 8 years of dating (exactly 8 days before our 8 year anniversary).

My work:
As stated above I am a mother, a teacher and a sales rep. Yes I am including my son in the work section of my intro. As any mother will tell you it is HARD WORK raising children. It is a learn as you go process no matter how many children you have, what kind of degree you have earned in the field of child development, or how much Experience you think you have. I have worked with children all my working life. I was a babysitter, an after-school care worker, a day care teacher, a nanny, earned a teaching degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Memphis and taught 4 years before I had my son. NONE of it prepared me for parenthood. I would like to think that it gave me some insight seeing as I knew the basics such as how to change a diaper and not to shake the baby. But, in reality When we welcomed our son William Hatley into the world in October 2008 my husband and I were just as terrified as any other new parent. It was as if I had forgotten everything I had learned and experienced. It is funny how that works..even after having a child already, when I would ask my friends for advice or tips they had already forgotten most of what happened in their child's first days. I think we are programmed to forget the really hard stuff b/c if not we would never have more than one child hahaha!! Well, William has successfully made it to two years of age with only one minor fractured leg and I am VERY proud. William is my life right now, everything I do I do for him and his well being...some times that includes taking care of MY well being so that I an better able to deal with the stress of raising my fiercely independent son! LOL

I also work part time teaching computer skills to 3 and 4 year old and I am that annoying person at the mall that asks if you would like to try a new fragrance. I love both my part time jobs, they allow me to spend the majority of my time with my son, pay well, have flexible schedules, come with very limited stress involved and get me out of the house for a few hours a week so I don't get cabin fever :) I really do enjoy my jobs. I will always love to teach and through this job I get to teach and do all the fun things with my students without lesson plans, parent conferences and grading papers. I love the people I work with at the mall we are always laughing and joking around. I get access to the newest fragrances and I really do enjoy the ones that my company makes which makes it super easy to sell. I'm sure this blog will include a lot about my hilarious son as well as my work.

My present:
I think the "thing" that is currently taking up the majority of my time, brain power and efforts is retuning to my faith. I am what they call a "fallen away catholic" When I moved to TN I decided, after exploring just about all the other Christian based religions there are, that I wanted to be Catholic. I signed myself up for R.C.I.A at the church my grandmother attended and joined the youth group. The church became my life. I went to church on Sunday followed by youth group Sunday night and we also met on Wednesday at the youth house. All of my free time revolved around church events. My husband and I met at church, We were good old old fashion Catholics we believed that horrible things would happen to us if we missed church.

 Once in college we helped to form the youth group at the Church of the Immaculate Conception and then most of our free time revolved around planning for and conducting that youth group. Shortly after starting I.C's youth group Matt got the job as the Youth Minister at Holy Spirit...So I helped with both youth groups. It was our connection to the church our life line to our faith. I stopped attending mass when we moved to Olive Branch b/c I had not found a church to attend yet. I began attending mass at Queen of Peace catholic church in 2007. During this time we struggled with fertility and although my faith wavered when we lost our first pregnancy after trying for a year to conceive, I never stopped attending mass. I turned to God with my hopes, fears, and dreams, praying that it be his will for us to have a family.  I'm not exactly sure when it happened ...but recently I took a look at my life and realized it was completely void of any real faith. I no longer went to church and no longer had any real connection to any parish. I still prayed and asked others to pray for me, I occasionally went to church and barely paid attention and put nothing in, so in turn got nothing out of it. I had thousands of excuses as to why I didn't attend church and why I didn't have time. But, honestly I just wasn't putting in any effort.

Things have changed now. I started my journey back by joining a "mommy group" at my local parish. We meet once a week and do a book study and talk about our lives. I am SO very thankful to the ladies in this group. I don't think they know how much they have impacted my life over the past few months and I am very glad that I had the chance to meet them and very much look forward to getting to know them better. The next step came when I heard about a weekend retreat called Cursillo. I jumped at the chance to go out of town for the weekend to surround myself with my faith and to really take a close look at where my life was and where a really wanted to to be. Since my Crusillo weekend I feel the fire of the Holy Spirit again (not that it wasn't always there, I just wasn't open to it) I have made some drastic changes in my spiritual life. I am now attending Mass more than once a week, have began praying and really talking to God again, I will continue to spend time with my mommy group and plan on becoming more involved with the Cursillo movement in Memphis.

I know that this post has already become quite lengthy and my future blogs will NOT be this long. I will limit myself to talking about that days or weeks events. It is hard to sum up a whole person with just a few paragraphs and this is not by any meas "all of me" it is just all I care to fit into one post :)