Tricky Tuesday #12

Do you think you'll  try the system for "loading up" any time soon?  I have to let you know it's not perfect the first time... or three.  As with any training, it does take consistency and time.  Practice.  And the first few times it is important and necessary for you to be present and give directions and correction.  To be honest, you'll have to do this repeatedly forever, just less and less over time... that's life with children, right?

Once we arrive at our destination, we unload in a very specific order.  The girls in the back row exit first, often while I'm unbuckling the baby.  They stand near whichever tire I direct them to stand next to (no leaning on the van!).  My oldest daughter often/usually climbs over and unbuckles the little guy.  She usually exits before him.  He almost always finds something to fiddle with and take a bit longer than he needs to get out.  A guy thing?  I don't know.

When out of the van, they know they are supposed to stand in order... either birth order or reverse birth order.  Either is acceptable.

Once I've taken baby out of her car seat and put her in the sling, I hold the youngest's hand and the girls line up in reverse birth order behind him.  We walk to the store this way.  I do check my girls in line frequently for two reasons.  First, to make sure they are still there!  And, of course, to make sure they are walking in a straight line.  Unfortunately, lines are very much part of our society, so as a homeschool family, I take such opportunities to teach them how to walk in a line.

I put the youngest in the seat of the shopping cart.  If the store has a bench right at the front, he climbs onto it and I lift him from there.  If not, I just lift him up from the ground.  He's a pretty solid guy, so I like when there is a bench at the front of the store!  My third daughter likes to ride on the opposite end of the card (standing on the undercarriage and holding on to the basket), but I don't often let her as it usually causes problems.  So, most often, the girls line up in reverse birth order behind me and that's how we walk.  It works.  We get plenty of comments about "Mama Duck and her ducklings" and most of the time I don't mind at all.  The comments that bug me are usually, "Man you've got YOUR hands full!"  Sometimes it's said very kindly and I don't mind those.  But there is a tone of voice that is problematic and I definitely don't prefer those comments (same words, just different delivery).

Next week: how I save money and aggravation while shopping without using any coupons!

Meditation Monday #52

Meditating has gone very well this last week.  I feel like something new has happened, but not really sure *what* it is.  It's like I've made it over a difficult pass and things are getting sorta easier?  I'm not really sure if that's it, though.

Basically, even when situations have been really troubling in the last week or so, I've not been very troubled.  Perhaps it's just this part of my circle/cycle (not feminine hormonal... more like the seasons referenced in the Bible).  I'm not sure.  But I feel pretty dang good.  And SO very thankful!!!

My routine lately has been: open, Sa Re Sa Sa, conquer anger, overcoming anger, Kirtan Kriya, Prosperity, close.  It's going very well... even with a longer meditation time.  I've been so impressed with my baby!  She's only 6.5 months old, but she is so sweet and patient!  She plays quietly during most of my meditations.  Sometimes she's asleep.  But usually, she is just SO patient and CONTENT.  SO very very content!  :)  I'm so grateful for her!

I've been thinking so much about seasons.  I guess, really, it's not so much thinking as it is SEEing... during meditation... especially Sa Re Sa Sa meditation.  I'm just seeing so clearly how things are in cycles and seasons and how appropriate it all is... how everything is a system and so very conncted even while seeming disconnencted or unconnected.  It's been really wonderful and liberating!  I'm hoping to put my thoughts into a better form so that it's not as much gibberish as this probably sounds.  As I mentioned, I'm feeling really good lately!  Praise the Lord!!!

Did you notice my button to the right?  I'm experimenting.  What do you think?

It looks like:

Hoping for Sunday Slimdown

Have you heard, I'm part of the writing team for One Roll At a Time?  I'm pretty excited about it.  I sure do hope to continue to shed excess poundage off my frame.  I hope you'll join me in working toward making our body temples fit and healthy through the coming year.  I'm hopeful!  One of the challenges for January is contained in this picture.  I'm going to do my best.  Won't you join in!??

I will probably post most frequently on Facebook.  I need to remember to use: #OneRollChallenge  I hope you'll do it, too!  Just another way we can work together to build community and get to know one another better.  I LOVE it!  :)

Thinking About The Future: 2014

2014.  Can you believe it's almost here?!!  It IS!

This new year feels even more like a gift waiting to be unwrapped, to me.  I've heard others feeling this way, in years past, but I can't remember feeling it to this extent, myself.  How about you?  Do you feel the coming of this new year to be full of promise and exciting things?

I'm excited to, hopefully, get to know you better.  I hope to learn more what you would like to hear from me and what you would like to see happening here.  I sure hope you will tell me! 

One of the things, pertaining to my blog, that I'm pretty excited about is GUEST POSTING. Won't you come read me in other blogs when I share with you where I'm writing?!?   I sure do looking forward to this new experience and I hope you'll tell me what you think about my efforts along the way!

I'm excited about building my businesseses.  I feel a huge impetus.  Have I told you about the dream that drives me?  It's probably not what you'd expect.  I hope to share it with you sometime.  Lilla Rose, among my business building efforts, is doing best, currently.  I love selling beautiful hair jewelry at the Farmer's Market on Wednesdays.  It's really enjoyable to meet so many new people.  If you'd like to earn some FREE Lilla Rose Hair Jewelry, I can do Facebook and Catalog parties.  In fact, if you are a hostess with me during January or February 2014 and your party reaches $200 in sales, you'll be entered into an opportunity to receive a pretty hefty cash prize (around $500 or MORE!).  I would love to help you qualify for that incentive!  :)

Although I'm not doing as well at selling/earning with Juice Plus and Young Living, I am very glad to be part of both companies.  I'm pleased and impressed with their products and very glad I am able to use them at a discounted price!  I love my Tower Garden (through Juice Plus) and am REALLY impressed with Young Living's essential oils.

I'm happy that my crocheting business has already made a little money and hope to experience exponential growth in that endeavor.  Crochet has been my longest standing friend (next to food, but I'm getting over that dependent relationship.  haha!).  I've had crochet as a time of peace and enjoyment since I was ten years old!!!

Another exciting thing in the coming year is the new experience/effort of working my blog as a business.  I hope very much to reap some monetary rewards from this part of my life.  I really believe multiple streams of income is really the way to go in this day and age.  And since I already do it and love, I figured: why not try to make a little money from what I do already!  Can you believe I've been blogging since 2008!??  I'm happily surprised, myself.

I've joined a writing team for a fitness blog.  NOT because I'm actually fit and healthy, but because I'm striving to be.  I'm REALLY real and full of flaws... I sure am hoping to reduce some of they physical flaws (mostly the ones in the form of rolls of fat on my figure) in the coming year.

If you are planning and hoping to become fit and healthy in 2014, you may find my next venture helpful.  It'll go live for purchases on January 3rd.  Right now you can read a bit about the products offered.  I've become an affiliate, which is one of the ways bloggers are able to make an income via what we do out of love (write our blogs, of course!).

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for abundance.  I'm thankful for mercy and the BIG three (hope, faith and love).  I'm thankful for greater and greater Peace in my heart, mind, and world.  I'm thankful for this crazy thing we call life and the lessons that come with living it.  I'm thankful to be here!

Working Wednesday

The Farmer's Market I've been working is closed today and next week (of course), but I'm still working!

What do I DO?  How do I work?

Thank you for asking!  I'm glad you're interested.  *wink, wink*

I actually have way more work than I can handle. Not all of it falls under the umbrella of "work for money," of course.  I'll stick to that umbrella for now, though.

My efforts to market myself and thus market: my Lilla Rose business, and the other businesses I own are, in large part, spent online.  This blog, Pinterest, Facebook, twitter, my newsletter (you can sign up by entering your email address in the box under "TNJNT newsletter" to the right), picture/graphic alteration and creation, networking, and actual crocheting (which, of course, is not online) take up a huge amount of time.

But what do I DO?

Well, I spend a lot of time in my work space... at my computer.  That time is spent writing posts, which is a time consumer.  I love it.  I love to write.  None-the-less, it eats time.  Making pictures to work with my posts is also time consumptive.  Notice, I haven't had photos with every post for the majority of my blog's life!  I am hoping to go back and add photos to older posts.



My Facebook business page is a time eater.  I love the growing interaction there.  It's been a lot of fun to put out games and enjoy the responses.  I really love seeing what and how people think.  It's just cool.  Anytime you see a picture on that (or any of my pages), you can bet it's taken a while to create them.  I'm so grateful for picmonkey.com and Photobie.  I don't know how I would manipulate pictures if not for those two tools!  What you see on my Pinterest is most often NOT my picture creation. Twitter still befuddles me a bit.  I really don't know the etiquetter of that social media.  I don't post often and have a very poor following because I really don't know what I'm doing there.  That is one of my goals for the new year: to figure that out and increase my followers.

You may not realize it, but for a blogger to get in good with those who pay for what we do (write, review, do giveaways), I need to have good numbers here in my blog as well as the other social media I've mentioned.  It's a lot, I tell ya!

I use and love Pinterest as a photo bookmark more than an idea storage place.  I like the ideas, too, of course.  I just tend to use it to keep track of things I'd like to find again.  For ideas, I've used Pinterest most for recipes.  I like to see what the food is going to look like before I attempt a new recipe.  Is that weird?

Pretty sure I'm missing something, but my brain is mush right now.  I sure would love to hear from you!  Is there some form of social media (or other tool) that you think would help me get out there more?  I sure can use all the help I can get!

Some Crochet Animals

Why yes, I do make these lovely little animals.

And, yes, you can order your very own!

 

 

Tricky Tuesday #11

Systems.  Order.  Organization.  Things in their place.  This sort of thing was way beyond my ken not so long ago.  Things being in their place is still a bit out there, but we're working on it!  Thankfully, I have progressed!  Praise the Lord for always providing me the information I needed when I needed it.

So now I'm sharing what I've been given.

Do you feel completely frustrated and near to tears just at the thought of getting out of the house to go shopping?  Well, if you have two or three babies (3 or under), all I can say is: this too shall pass.  Seriously, you can implement some of my suggestions, but when your oldest child is 3 years old, things are bit more hectic than when they are bit older and more able.

My life is more difficult and fuller and better and harder all at once, now that I have 5 children.  My oldest is 9 years old and amazing.  The next is 7 and also amazing (in different ways, sometimes, but still amazing).  I used to hear mothers of many say, "I couldn't have this many children without this many children."  I get it now.

Because we have systems in place for most events, activities, situations, life is a lot easier even though it's still more difficult in some ways.  Yes, I do know that sounds contradictory, but it's absolutely true.

To depart, I give assignments.  They are usually pretty much the same.  Oldst daughter helps with youngest child (finding shoes, getting any final articles of clothing put on... sometimes that doesn't work, so I do it at the last minute before we head out).  The two middle daughters are pretty independent, so they get themselves together and head out as soon as my oldest daughter is ready.

At the van: My oldest daughter knows how to unlock the door they need to enter.  The children enter in a certain order.  First the youngest enters first.  His seat is in the first bench farthest from the one sliding door.  Next my oldest daughter climbs in and helps youngest buckle in his seat.  Next my second daughter gets in her seat and puts on her buckle.  Finally, my third daughter gets in and buckles herself up, unless it's dark in which case my second daughter might need to help her.  It used to be second daughter's job to help third daughter get buckled.  Finally, oldest climbs over the first bench into the row on which she sits.    How does this work?  Everyone has assigned seats.  YEAY!  No arguements over who sits where.  I put the baby in her seat as I compliment or correct based on how they did or did not accomplish the load up procedure.  It actually works.

Having this system in place (loading up), I don't spend nearly as much time as I onc did.  So, even though I'm not technically saving money, I am saving time... and time is really important to making money, right!??

Next week I'll share with you how it works when getting out of the van and going into stores.

Tricky Tuesday used to be all about saving money.  It is now becoming more about dealing with things that might be tricky to deal with.  In many instances, those things that are tricky to deal with may save you money if dealt with in a new way.  We can hope!

Meditation Monday #51

This last week went well.  I missed Sunday, though.  It was just a bit of a difficult weekend and I didn't take care of myself first.  That's how it happens most of the time when I miss my meditation for a whole day.  Pretty bummed about it because now I need to restart my 40 day challenge.  ahwell.  I'm sure I need it!

I was able to do a LONG meditation on Saturday.  An hour.  Baby slept almost the whole time, which is why I was able to spend so much time in the quiet of my mind.  Very nice.  I would probably be sad if that's all I had, but it's nice to have it when I can here and there.

Saturday Soliloquy #16



It's been a while since I was able to work on this series.  I hope to have it here for a while now.  :)

Now on to Australia.  Those are stories my eldest daughter asks for second only to Japan.  Japan is basically done, so... here we are.

My plane took off for Australia about a year after I left for Japan.  I met my future husband about a month after I got back to the states from Australia (January 2011).  He departed for a 6 month deployment a couple months before I left for Australia (in May 2011).    I departed at the end of July.

Before I left for Oz, I planned out my whole trip from flight to arrival in Perth (the city of my school: Edith Cowan).  I purchased a pass for bus travel anywhere on the continent (only caveat: you can not go back once you've gone in one direction unless going back the way you've come is the only option).

I flew into Sydney.  I was blessed by some of my luggage being lost on the trip.  I didn't feel totally blessed until I was out and walking in the city... then I realized what a hassle it would've been to have ALL of my stuff with me.  As it was, my hiking packs barely fit into the locker I paid for until I could check into my room.

I stayed at a Hostel very near the center of town.  Yes, hostel.  Not hotel.  The main difference is that a hostel is more for community than a hotel.  Sometimes, you share rooms with others.  Usually, you have to pick up your linens when you check in, make your own bed.  The don't usually provide towels or any other toiletries (though some do have toilet paper).  The kitchens are communal with lockers in which you can keep your own food.  Anything you keep in the fridge, you must label or it's up for grabs.  There is a whole room intended for hangout out and getting to know others.  Often, a TV is in that room.  Maybe wifi.  It was very cool.

Stay Tuned for more next week!  :)

A New Giveaway Is Active Now!

Carrie,k at Growing Kid Reviews, says some interesting things.  I'm very pleased!  I hope you'll let me know what you think via a comment here!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for marriage.  I don't know about you, but I think there's something about marriage... it becomes sort of a whole new being among the people it binds.  I think it's own entity.  I'm grateful for it.  What do YOU think?

Working Wednesday

I stopped these posts because I was just so frustrated about my tent remaining non-functional due to problems replacing a broken part.  The problem is mostly resolved, but not compltely.  It caused another problem, though.  I'm selling indoors for December because I could, at least, do that and I didn't want to miss ANOTHER market day because my tent company couldn't get me the correct part to repair my tent.  The new problem: it's more expensive to sell inside AND inside gets less traffic.

Dec. 4th

 

Dec. 11th

Dec. 11th trying to get baby to smile.

Ria holding baby and our setup on the 11th.

 

 

God has been very good to us and we've had a few sales each time.  Praying for more as we could really use the business and encouragement in business!  If you think to pray for us, I hope you will!  I KNOW prayer works wonders!!!

Meditation Monday #50

I've been able to share meditation, the idea of Kundalini Yoga, with a few people in real life lately.  It's so exciting to hope that I might, just by sharing this awesome technology, help a few others to experience the changes I've enjoyed as a result of my meditation practice.  I sure do hope they feel the peace that has come to me.  Of course, it didn't happen after one experience with meditation.

Can you believe I've been meditating using Kundalini Yoga for 18+ months now?  Well, I can hardly believe it's been so long.  Exciting and wonderful!

I've had a very busy week and, as a result, I had less available time for meditation.  I didn't do Kirtan Kriya every single day last week.  I still did all of my 40 Day Challenge forms of meditating, though.  YEAY!!  :) So, I'm going strong!

Praise the Lord for turning this chaotic girl into a lady who is becoming consistent in lots of ways!!!

Happy Birthday

To Me!  ^_^

I'm 38 today.  I feel like such a baby in so many ways, so sit's hard to believe I'm well on my way to becoming an older lady!  HA!!!

Only 10am and it's already been a great day.  I want to share a couple things that have helped it feel that way.  First, is the joyful manner with which my children have greeted me and wished me happiness today.  Although it has subsided already, they were starting out well with their chores and responsibilities.  At least it started out well.  They could've just done poorly with that from the start (or: as usual).

I was able to take a walk.  It helps me to get out of the house and away from my load of responsibilities.  I left a lot later than normal because the weather is rather cold and I've been worried about how the mists are effecting me and baby girl.  Thankfully they were basically gone by the time I went out.  Yeay!  :)

Lots of facebook friends have wished me a Happy Birthday.  That definitely brings brightness to my day.  I'm so grateful!

The best thing, probably, so far, is the 'secret' gift my children delivered a few days ago.  They wanted to give me a surprise party.  I don't like surprises unless I've asked for them.  So... they did something that could be a surprise/secret.

Now, try and tell me that's NOT funny!!

 

That's today.

Once you read the letter,

you'll understand better what this is all about.  ^_^

 

Pretty sweet letter!  I'll transcribe it below.

 

My oldest daughter wrote the letter.  It says:
Dear Mrs. Gollihugh,

We are the mama boosters. & we have been to mama's house before. & we had a vote about a month ago & the subject of the vote was you!  We the four mama booster's all agreed that you are the best mother on the face of the earth so along  with this Letter there will also be a blue ribbon because you have won the blue ribbon of being the best mother ever miss Gollihugh we apreeceate what you do very much.  keep doing what you do & keep being who you are!

Sincerely,

the mama booster's

P.S.

Happy birthday!  from the mama boosters.

 

So, the picture before the letter is my Blue Ribbon.  How awesome and wonderful is that!!!??  Pretty sweet gift, if you ask me!  My children have risen up and called me blessed.  My business is growing bit by bit... I'm becoming a Proverbs 31 woman.  Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever!!!!