{ a good week }

Hope you are all having a good week! I'm still busting out the to do list and having fun with the kids in this beautiful spring weather, but I'll be back soon.... ps - My dad's surgery is tomorrow, so please keep him in your prayers this week.... (thank you)!

image: My 6 year old daughter's version of her LobotoME weekly planner. Don't you wish your week looked like this?

UPDATE: Thanks for all of your prayers. My dad's surgery went well and he should be able to come home tomorrow!

{ on my mind }

I'm taking a brief hiatus from blogging while I tackle getting my life in order, scratch some stuff off of my to do list, get back in shape, begin working on my spring gardening projects, etc.

I recently came across this quote and it really resonated with me. “Stop every now and then to evaluate whether you are really learning or enjoying as much as you would like. If not, have the courage to find out why and then change your path of study.” - Clare Walker Leslie

This Spring figure out what you want to put your energy towards. Now is the time! If YOU don’t get clear on what you want, then the space won't be there to create that life and there is no way the universe can give it to you.

So here's how I'm changing my path this spring...

I deactivated my facebook account and have been taking a hiatus from twitter.
I deleted my google reader account to less than 20 blogs.
I returned a few items that I recently bought because I realized I didn't need them.
I dropped off 6 more boxes of stuff to donate to the local shelter & thrift store.
I let go of some past family drama and sought out peace.
I almost bought a yogurt maker and then realized that my time is more valuable than any potential savings so I put it back. I can buy Stonyfield Organic Yogurt and support a good company. Same with the chickens. Dreams of turning our backyard shed into a chicken coop gave way to a much stronger desire to have less things to take care of. So I will continue buying our eggs from Lindsey, a sweet woman with a small family farm nearby. I will support her family and let her muck out the chicken coop instead of me. ;)
I let my personal assistant go in my desire to meet some of our financial goals more quickly. I am just going to work less. I am going to ship less frequently. I am not doing wholesale accounts anymore with the exception of The Container Store (they are delightful to work with). The smaller store accounts created a payment collection nightmare. I am just letting LobotoME be what it is and am working on letting go of my grand expectations and lofty business goals.
I'm cooking healthy meals for the family and we don't eat things that my grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
I'm ramping back up with p90x and starting to run more now that the weather has gotten better outside. I'm taking care of ME.
I'm purging my closet again. Check out my ebay listings here.

I want to be with my family (with the secondary plus of bringing in additional revenue on the side)...I don't want to put my kids in daycare or farm them out to others if I don't have to. I don't want to be on the computer when I could be playing with them. I want to swim in the pond and have picnics everyday this summer with them. So that's what I'm going to do.

I'll be back later this spring but in the meantime I leave you with a few inspired posts from around blog-land....

Running a Business and Finding Balance from Tara at Ink+Wit

I Choose (words to live by)

Intrigued by this concept.

Love the thought of this...home as vacation.

The 10 Most Important Things to Simplify in your Life

Home Farming Tips

Start Your Day in 33 Different Ways

101 Ways to Cheer Yourself Up

Tiny Spring Baskets (perfect for May Day)

The Suck Factor of Life Balance

My Brain on Sales via Daily Worth {we can all relate, can't we?}

This Video {I need Africa more than Africa needs ME}

I like this idea of having a "uniform" and coordinating pieces and getting rid of the rest. I really want to simplify my look and my belongings. I'm feeling another closet purge coming on...

And I'm still in love with Jamie Oliver's new show, Food Revolution. The cooking flash mob=brilliant! Catch up on past episodes here. Sign the petition here. And if you don't know what your kids are eating at school, I BEG you to go, look, learn, get involved (and in the meantime PACK healthy lunches + snacks for your kids).

print pictured above available here.

{ earth week }

Next week's learning theme at home is Earth Week in celebration of Earth Day! Here's what we're going to do to celebrate, feel free to join in!

1) Pick up trash along a mile of the road we live on.
2) Create in the Happy Earth Day Coloring Book. Download here.
3) Read earth themed books from Library.
4) Watch Wall-E for family movie night.
5) Take a field trip to the dump & recycling center.
6) Make pine cone bird feeders.
7) Enjoy a gift of new little eco jot notebooks & colored pencils to tote along on a family hike.
8) A no-waste picnic in the yard this weekend.
9) Make Earth Day bars and these carrot snacks.
10) And possibly take an impromptu road trip to one of our favorite National Parks.
11) Sign this earth day pledge.

{ rainbow brite }

Samme's 6th Birthday Party Recap....

Because it was less than a week after our first major event of the season, I kept it simple (totally against my nature) and hosted it at the local gymnastics center....I got the printable rainbow invitations off of etsy along with some of the goody bag items and huge balloons. For food we had pizza, rainbow fruit salad, rainbow goldfish and rainbow cupcakes. Flavored water in rainbow colors for drinks and goody bags comprised of a wacky straw, butterfly crayon, package of 6 gumballs, rainbow toothbrushes (yes I give toothbrushes out for almost every occasion!), pencils imprinted with "AWESOME" and other goodies....

Are any of you completely floored by some of the birthday parties for kids these days? HUGE, expensive, extravagant affairs? Some of them are fancier than my wedding for goodness sakes! I vow(ed) to keep Samme's simple despite the "pressure" to go big. ;)

{ live the life }

The other evening after viewing a commercial for Atlantis {along with their new tag line...Live the Life} Samme turned to my husband and said, "Daddy, some day we have to go there.... so we can live the life." I've been thinking about that non-stop since then. 1) Because I want to make it happen and bring her there. 2) Because it is so true....it is so important to live the life.

As you know, I've spent the past week back in New York helping care for my elderly and sick grandparents...they are in their mid-80's and have endured so much and yet thrived raising a large family with small means. They lived through the Great Depression, Gramp fought in WW II and was gone for years while Gram was back home raising young children. They both worked their tails off to provide for their family and take care of each other. They bought their 1st and only home for a $10 deposit. It was literally falling apart, and without so much as a nickle in his pocket, Gramp set forth to turn it into a HOME for them and their children. I have such fond memories of my times with them and am so thankful I have been able to spend this past week with them. They are getting along a tiny bit better each day (which is a miracle) and we turned the reins over to more family this week so I could get back to my sweet little family.

But back to {live the life}. It is so important to live the life. And not just "a life." But the LIFE you WANT to be living. The life that you are MADE to live. Now is the time people. So this week, I'm setting forth to once again attempt to get back on track with self-care and ME-time; catch up on things around here (slowly and surely), spend some one on one time with my loves, date night with Will (who was a ROCK STAR holding down the fort all week while I was away), unpack, go for a long run, catch up on LobotoME tasks, send thank you notes and stealing away some time to plan our next adventure....all while trying not to get too bogged down in my TO Do's but focus more on my To Don'ts. Say no. Take it easy. Set up the hammock. Start to get my hands dirty in the garden. {note: this all may require some copious amounts of Diet Coke this week - then I'll detox + quit next week!}

Go! Live the Life!

{ smack down }

How's that for a title of a blog post....Geeez....

Anyway, that's sort of how I'm feeling. You know how I kind of picked myself up and together after this all happened recently and said that I felt good things coming my way including lots of health...well, I guess I should have knocked on wood or something.

This past Saturday night we got a call that my grandfather (who I grew up near and who I adore) and who lives in upstate NY in pretty much middle of nowhere was airlifted to a larger hospital because he was bleeding and the couldn't figure out why he was losing massive amounts of blood. He was in the ICU and it didn't look good. So my mom & I hoped on a plane (I say that like it happend with ease & grace, not) but it was really a MAD DASH around my house throwing stuff into a backpack, leaving lists for Will about field trips, and egg drops and readathon forms, making easter baskets, kissing the kids goodnight and then laying in bed wide awake for 3 hours before leaving for the airport at 4:00AM. Oh, and I should mention that if you buy a plane ticket not 14 days in advance, but more like 14 MINUTES in advance it costs A s%*t load of money. I'm talking I SHOULD (for the amount of $$$ I forked over to UNITED) BE on a BEACH in FIJI sipping a cocktail. But alas I'm in rainy upstate NY.

Gramp is now stable (thank goodness) but really weak due to the fact that he lost massive amounts of blood (still unknown cause) and that caused a heart attack and related damage. I'm trying to keep his bride of 60+ years calm and distracted until we can bring Gramp home because they are a mess being apart from one another. I was supposed to fly home tomorrow but I don't think I can until Gramp can leave the hospital (my mom can't be in 2 places at once - in the hospital caring for Gramp and at their home taking care of Gram). I should note my husband is a ROCK STAR. (Well, other than on Easter morning putting cartoons on so he could distract the kids while he hid the EGGS because he forget to do it!!!?!?!)

So anyway my friends, I've been immersed in elder care the past several days and all I can tell you is this, IT IS NO FUN GETTING OLD. SO GO HAVE FUN NOW. While you still can. Seriously, I don't want to be 88 years old laying in the hospital wishing there were things I did or places I visited or people I could have loved MORE or adventures I should have had. GO DO IT NOW.

{ and then she was six }