Sunday, October 30, 2011

They're creepy and they're kooky...

Mysterious and spooky,

                        They're all together ooky,

                                              The Addams Family!


Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Uncle Fester, Pugsley and Lurch

Ornery Wednesday with her
headless Marie Antoinette doll.
Toby LOVED being Pugsley! Even in
those short shorts!






Ben did some awesome Lurch impersonations!
Brady actually had his head shaved for the role
of Uncle Fester! Not afraid to go all out!!
               
Wednesday and Pugsley. Best buds! 
And Morticia with her best bud :) (Funny that Michelle and I showed up in such parallel but opposite costumes!)
Happy Halloween from the Addams Campbell Family!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

I think I might be done with beating myself up...

I have a really bad habit. I LOVE to write to-do lists. But I'm overzealous in a big way. Rarely, if ever, are my to-do lists lists that can actually be done in a day. It's like the worst kind of sabotage and I set myself up for failure every morning. I wake up excited to tackle a day (Seriously! Sometimes when I'm writing my lists I actually get excited at the prospect of such productivity!) and get out my scrap of paper and start jotting down everything that I'm just sure I'll be able to accomplish in the next 15 hours. Okay let's be real. In my next 18 hours. I'm never, ever in bed before midnight no matter how many times I set that goal...

So I write down the whole list of things to do. The errands, the bills to pay, the chauffeuring gigs, the household chores, the design work I want to do, the meals to cook, the exercise to fit in, etc. I write it all down. Usually with boxes to proudly place my check mark in when I'm ready to tick off a completed task.

And then I usually plow through the first 2-3 things on the list. And I mark them off with a smug grin. Look at me taking down this monster list! I am woman; hear me roar!

And then somewhere around the time that Molly drops the milk jug, or Toby can't find a clean pair of jeans and has a complete meltdown because heaven forbid should my son (living in Hawaii!) have to wear (gasp!) shorts [the horror!] to school one day, or Brady won't stop asking for variations on what I've packed for lunch or Ben is grumbling about how heavy his backpack is.... I crumble. The list gets lost and I start muddling my way through a day of obstacles, sidetracks and lots and lots and lots of messes.

At the end of the day when I find my morning list buried under piles of school notes or receipts, I see a few measly boxes check marked and a whole bunch of unfinished tasks glaring me in the face. My shoulders slump and I usually heave a few heavy sighs and I count the day as a big ol' flop.

I think I'm done with this whole beating-myself-up-daily grind. That's not to say that I'll stop making lists because I NEED to write things down to help me remember the critical stuff. I think I'm just done with only looking at what wasn't accomplished during the day and I'm going to start focusing on what I did get done during my 15 18 hours.

Today I:

  • Cleaned Molly up after a nighttime potty accident. (What?! Ugh!)
  • Packed lunches for my boys
  • Got the kids out the door in (relatively) clean clothing
  • Fed my daughter
  • Fed myself (on a schedule even! The things we do to get in control of our weight...)
  • Drank a ton of water (no diet soda! Yay for me and will-power...)
  • Designed a fun new product to go into the Scrap Girls store tomorrow and did all the business-y stuff associated with preparing it to launch
  • Designed a freebie product to offer Scrap Girls customers in the near future
  • Designed two digital scrapbook layouts to go with my new products (and to go in the kids' books! Two birds one stone baby.)
  • Cheered on my weight loss pacing partner
  • Accepted a little freelance design job
  • Talked with a friend (when we both needed a little adult interaction)
  • Agreed to help with a baptismal service at church this weekend
  • Washed, dried and folded a few loads of laundry
  • Put a few dishes away and cleaned the counters
  • Made sure the kids' homework was done
  • Had a couple of great heart-to-heart conversations with Ben about some heavy issues (LGBT club at school, racism and the prejudice against him as a minority at his school, and also confronting one of his teachers about her cuss word of choice...Wow. What a day.)
  • Shuttled the kids to swim lessons
  • Sent the kids to the park to play (I could have just let them keep staring at the xbox and tv right? I think getting them out the door to play is an accomplishment in it's own way...)
  • Took Brady to his dance class
  • Exercised for an hour at Zumba class
  • Cooked dinner for Willy and I (he fed the kids while I was gone. Woot!)
  • Wrote a product review to publish tomorrow on Win, Lose or Blog
And then I also:
  • Checked out Facebook for a bit
  • Played around in Pinterest for a little longer bit
  • Played a little Pac-Man
  • Watched last night's episode of the X Factor
  • Read a bit of my book
Did I get new vacuum bags and get my floors vacuumed today as written on my list? Nope.

Did I get the kitchen sparkling clean as written on my list? Nope.

Did I clean up my hot spot pile of randomness in my bedroom as written on my list? Nope.

Did I create and craft a new educational game for my preschooler? Nope. (Not on my list... but c'mon. We Supermom ourselves to death sometimes and I've put stupidly ambitious things like this on my lists before.)

For goodness sake. I had a busy day! I was productive and attentive to my kids and their needs and I took care of myself and the essentials. I think I'm done with the whole beating myself up thing. I'm going to stop moaning about the non-essential things that I don't get done in any given day and start trying to celebrate the talks with my kids, the shuttling kids to and from activities that they love, the exercise, the interactions with other adults, etc as the accomplishments that they are.

Oh, and the Pac-man. I'm definitely going to celebrate the Pac-man.


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Best meal of the year

October 15th was Ice Cream for Dinner Day, an event started by a dear friend of mine several years ago and an event that my family very whole-heartedly participates in. Jen started the annual day in honor of her father who fought a short battle with cancer in 2005. His doctors had cleared him to be able to eat any food he wanted and the food he wanted was Haagan Daas vanilla ice cream which Jen's brother brought to the hospital for their dad. Unfortunately, his battle was cut short and he was unable to enjoy that ice cream meal. Jen introduced friends to the idea of Ice Cream for Dinner Day as a reminder to embrace spontaneity, have our priorities in check and recognize that sometimes you don't ever get to do the things that you put off... so don't put them off and just enjoy life now!

We celebrated the day on Sunday October 16th since Saturday was crazy nuts around here. We ate ice cream in bowls. We ate ice cream in cones. We ate ice cream with caramel and hot fudge and whip cream and cherries. And we enjoyed every minute! Then instead of forcing the kids to endure Sunday afternoon quiet time after lunch like we usually do, we busted out the Rock Band instruments and had a great family jam session to burn off the sugar energy LOL. (And then we all pretty much crashed for the afternoon anyway. It was perfect). We love this day and I'm so glad to have such a special tradition with my family.

The kids all chose their own flavors. Ben always picks Cookie
Dough. Brady chose Cookies and Cream. Toby likes "all of them"
and Molly wanted "Pink" so I got Neapolitan for the two of them.
I got my personal fav (Ben and Jerry's Cheesecake Brownie).
Yum yum yum!






Molly REALLY liked the whip cream!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Picture Post (since I've been a lazy blogger lately...)

October has been a busy, busy month! We've had two birthdays (Brady turned 10 on 10/5 and Ben turned 14 on 10/9), we've had some fun family outings (to Waikiki on a Friday night to watch fireworks, to the Polynesian Cultural Center, to the skate park, etc) and the kids are all in school and doing their thing. It's just kind of constant buzz and activity around here. Here are a few (ha!) pics from this month so far.

Boys got haircuts this month. This is the aftermath in the tub after all three got their cuts. Yikes!

This and the following pics show just how hard it is to ever get a decent shot of my kids all at once.
 
 

Fireworks night in Waikiki. We usually watch from the Ala Moana beach park and the kids ALWAYS climb this tree when we're there.



Molly, having grown up here in warm and sunny Hawaii, is having the hardest time adjusting to this whole new central air gig we've got going on in our new house. I found her napping like this one afternoon, arms and legs pulled in and tucked inside her dress to keep warm. Poor baby LOL.

Brady turned 10 this year!! I can't believe it's been 10 years since this joyful boy came into my life!

I didn't think anyone could be as enthusiastic about Legos as Ben.
I was wrong.

10 candles!! Wow

Oh that's right... 10 TRICK candles.
Needed some help to get those candles taken care of.
Birthday Boy Ben! Turned 14 (the day *after* a Stake Dance.... mwahahahaha!)

There's my (other) Lego loving boy.

Ghetto candles on the birthday cake. (I didn't have a number 4 and I didn't have enough
  regular candles. Number One plus 4 regular candles. Get it? 1-4. 14. *sigh* I'm pathetic.)
At least the pineapple upside down cake was wowza yum.

Brady learned to drop in last week. Goooooo Brady!



Fearless Toby. This kid LOVES to skateboard!



Ben was excited to get back into his blades this day.



But Ben spent some time on his board, too.

PCC Trip - almost always starts with a canoe ride.


Toby and Ben both got lucky and caught fish in the Tahitian fishing shack this day.



Brady and Molly weren't so lucky but had fun trying.







I got to attend a Party in Pink Zumba event that was a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and
the Susan G Komen Foundation. It was AMAZING to be out their shaking my groove thing with hundreds
of women wearing pink (and a few brave men.) Super fun night, great workout, awesome purpose.

My Zumba instructor, Madalene. I love the way this woman motivates me!

Okay. Hopefully I didn't crash your computer with all these pics. Thanks for peeking :) I'll try to stay more on top of this (because doing a billion pics at a time is a pain in the tush!)