We love To-Do Lists Don't We?

19 Things You Say You’ll Do This Weekend But Never Do | Thought Catalog

Aug. 31, 2012

By Chelsea Fagan

1. Do a real, actual cleaning, where you get into the grimy corners that you’ve been daintily ignoring every time you pass a broom around the floor.

2. Get that French press/bike/new armchair/overpriced knick-knack that you’ve been talking about how much you need for the past six months.

3. Make an incredibly delicious-looking but tedious recipe you saw in a magazine/on Barefoot Contessa that one time.

4. Catch up on that amazing TV show everyone is talking about like it cured cancer or something.

5. Go to a god damn farmer’s market and get some of those unbelievably precious old-fashioned bottles of milk with the cream still on top.

6. Fully stock your kitchen so that every time you want to make a meal that requires more than pasta and water, you don’t have to make a trip to the grocery store.

7. Prepare and enjoy one of those adorable-looking cocktails served in mason jars that make up about 65 percent of Pinterest’s content.

8. Paint an “accent wall,” though you’re still not sure what that is, exactly.

9. Finally read that book you bought that you are almost positive will make you a smarter/more cultured person.

10. Fix a minor electrical problem that has been plaguing your apartment literally since you’ve moved in — especially that infernal low-battery smoke alarm beeper.

11. Make a dent in writing that novel that’s been living inside your head and making you feel like a procrastinating failure.

12. Get caught up on extra work you brought home from the office to be really on top of things next week. (Just kidding!)

13. Re-watch all of Arrested Development to emotionally prepare yourself for the upcoming film version.

14. Donate the roughly 50 percent of your clothes that you have not worn in at least a year but have held onto out of sentimental attachment/laziness.

15. Buy a blender. (Everyone knows that life is immediately improved 10-fold if you can start your day off with a fresh smoothie.)

16. Take up yoga, or at least just stretch a bunch.

17. Wear a scarf and go antiquing with your significant other, drinking pumpkin lattes and being generally insufferable.

18. Volunteer somewhere, doing philanthropic things, at some kind of charitable place.

19. Wake up early and get a good run in before the day starts. (LOLOLOLOL.)

Read more at http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/19-things-you-say-youll-do-this-weekend-but-never-do/#WSZyGLcoXOGURwDd.99

Which ones will you be doing?

Family Life Weekend to Remember Getaway

My husband and I went to this Marriage Conference a couple of years ago and it was life and MARRIAGE changing!!! If you are married I definitely recommend it. If you are engaged I DEMAND that you go. If you're married with kids start lining up a babysitter and make it a weekend for just you two.
Check out the brochure here

http://www.familylife.com/WEEKEND

I'll share this with you;

When my husband and I arrived at this seminar for the weekend. We felt we were in a pretty good place. On the first night we were pretty encouraged and looking forward to the rest of weekend. On the second day, we were asked to conduct an exercise where we wrote LOVE LETTERS (when was the last time you wrote a letter much more a love letter!) to each other. The objective was to surface and identify your true feelings towards each other. The first part of the exercise was to spend 10 minutes praying with each other and the second part was to write the letter. The letter had to cover the following; what qualities attracted us most to each other, what qualities we appreciated or had learned to appreciate since we were married, how our differences had helped us grow emotionally and spiritually and finally what steps we will commit to take to love God and love each other more.

The third part was sharing our letters with each other and let me just say! when all was said and done we were both in tears. We found out we had some bitterness and anger towards each other but also that there was a deep love that neither one of us wanted to let go off or taint. We were brutally honest!! I still think about that moment in our marriage and how it brought us to a new level of honesty, commitment and discovery. Sometimes, it doesn't take being in a bad place to help your marriage. I've been realizing that sometimes we all get complacent, or bored or lazy and what you really need is to go to the next level of discovery, growth and expectation in your marriage. If marriage is supposed to sharpen us, make us the 2.0 versions of ourselves then we should always be investing.

This year we have a baby and we're bringing more couples from our church to the conference and we're excited! Marriage is work, but what we've discovered is that for us it's a the best "job" we've ever had and we love going to work everyday!!!!!!

CONTACT ME for a discount code to register.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a paid employee or endorser of the Family Life Organization. I receive absolutely no form of compensation.

Who run the World?

wom·an/ˈwo͝omən/
1. An adult female person; a grown-up female person, as distinguished from a man or a child; sometimes, any female person.

Man can never be a woman's equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her. - Mahatma Gandhi

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.  - Abraham Lincoln

There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is a thing no married man knows anything about. - Oscar Wilde

econ·o·my noun \i-ˈkä-nə-mē, ə-, ē-\
1. archaic : the management of household or private affairs and especially expenses
2a: thrifty and efficient use of material resources : frugality in expenditures; also : an instance or a means of economizing : saving b : efficient and concise use of nonmaterial resources (as effort, language, or motion)
3a : the arrangement or mode of operation of something : organization b : a system especially of interaction and exchange <an economy of information>

Mainstream Hollywood As Usual?

Is this a case of seriously horrible mainstreaming, colorism or just stupidity in Hollywood? Is Zoe Saldana really the best choice to play Nina Simone when Viola Davis auditioned and was passed up for the same role. I first read about this on The Daily Beast but since then, the responses I've seen on Facebook and other news outlets have shown disapproval of the direction in which the producers are taking this movie. There is actually a petition demanding that the star be replaced with an actress who actually looks like Nina Simone.

What is this really about?  I'm curious to hear your thoughts. In the meantime here is an interesting articles on it from the Huffington Post. Could it just be a money thing? Viola Davis is a Oscar-nominated actress and might have to be paid more than Zoe Saldana who is not?

The singer songwriter's daughter also had something to contribute to the conversation in this article.

 Let me hear your thoughts! How does this make you feel? Let's talk! If you have something to contribute I'll be happy to post it on here. Just send it to me.

Zoe

Zoe - the other love of my life. Every time I look at her I think - Gosh I love her! I also think - man this is rough work. Half the time I'm exhausted tired, the other half of the time she energizes me.

This is my first blog ever - so why is my first post about my beautiful, innocent, demanding, precious, best thing I ever did, sweet daughter? Because since she came along, not just as my daughter but also as another woman (eventually), I've just become more aware of my role as wife, mother, sister, friend. More aware of (my) our industriousness as women. Proverbs 31. How much we do and the many ways we do it. Most women I know are always performing a personal juggling act. BUT while juggling the balls of their daily personal struggles they somehow end up in a circle surrounded by everyone they know, throwing their own balls into her personal juggling act all the while screaming, "don't drop my ball!". (whew! never used the word balls so many times in one sentence lol).

www.women-unlimited.co.uk

Now this is not groundbreaking news...BUT I do believe most women (me) have a moment like the one that I'm having now, when you just realize...THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE DONE...I HAVE TO FIGURE IT ALL OUT...there is help yes, oh but there is still so much and I am standing in the circle. For me that moment has been this week, when my life, quite different from 5 years ago has been filled with, a daughter who cries desperately when I'm not in the room, whose need for me slightly scares frightens me, a husband who works so hard and really needs my encouragement, preparing to go back to finish a master's degree, fear of daycare (one that has pushed back her start date), a brother whose path requires guidance and work (meeting expectations) and honestly, fear. Fear.of.failure. Dropping the balls (there's that word again).

Now am I really going to fail? Probably not. Doesn't stop me from having those moments. But this is my point (see video). This blog post is dedicated to Zoe because when all is said and done, if making her happy is as simple as picking the right body lotion for her - then I'm good.( Johnson&Johnson - you owe me for this one). For her, silly faces and the right lotion = contentment. She's my reminder, that all it takes is baby steps (ha!). For that I will always love these early moments with my beautiful, innocent, demanding, precious, best thing I ever did, sweet Zoe. Let the games begin!