Thursday, February 25, 2010

Because I KNOW you've been curious...

So here's a little catch-up on things I have been meaning to write about. :)

First of all, here's a pic of the finished product made from those Valentine's materials. I didn't get a pic of the cards that we sent to the grandparents, but these were her teacher (and daycare management) gifts. :)



Then, on Valentine's weekend, we missed THIS: (So sad, I know.)
*But thanks to our super-cool friends/neighbors, Will and Ashley, for taking pics of our house for us. :)*



But while it was snowing at our place, we were FREEZING at the beach at a GORGEOUS wedding. There was beautiful music, massages, seafood, a little window shopping, the best coffee I have EVER had, dancing, visiting with friends we NEVER see, a FEW glasses of wine, and maybe a little old school rapping on my part. :) (Vanilla Ice just runs from my PORES when it comes on. I can't help myself.) haha! I hope to get these two pics in bigger format (they're from a friend's camera), but for now, here's what I have. PS - How friggin adorable is the hubs?!?


Then this past weekend, I went on a scrapbooking retreat with my Aunt Nan (who is a NUT that I adore). We laughed, danced, sang, listened to a TON of Michael Jackson, slept-in, and even got some scrapbooking done. Here's the pile I came home with. :)


And now THIS weekend (Are you exhausted yet? 'Cause after 3 weekends in a row, I'm friggin' TIRED!) T and I are going to see all THESE peeps (some of my favorite in the WORLD) while the hubs is at a conference. Although I'm tired of suitcases (and packing them), I am REALLY excited about visiting the 'rents and my brother and his family. I'm also having lunch with a group of girls from my graduating class, so that should also be a blast. Oh, AND I get to see my host family from state Jr. Miss a MILLION years ago when I was in high school. So much fun!


Whew! Do you feel caught-up? Do you now understand why I am SO NUTS?!? Geez!
Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Just In Case

Some days, Blogger has issues!
(I bet those of you who use Blogger already knew that.)

Most days, it's GREAT, easy-to-use, and free, so I can't complain.

But SOME DAYS...

MY computer screen doesn't show a "comments" button when I go to yesterday's blog!

Does yours?

Well, JUST IN CASE.

I don't want to miss-out on anyone's mixed-tape!!!

If you don't see a "comments" button on the Meme Mondays post, then you can post your comments

HERE!!!

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Monday, February 22, 2010

Meme Mondays

*Take your shoes off. Stay a while. This turned out CONSIDERABLY longer than I intended. ha!*

I'm a little slow getting the blog rolling this week. I spent the weekend Scrapbooking my hiney off. (Ok, actually the hiney didn't go away at all - DARN - but it is sore from sitting in that chair so much!) I came back with LOTS of pages done (yipee!) but not enough sleep, so I'm drinking coffee and trying to get my brain jump-started. (My partner at work would PROBABLY have appreciated my being able to do this earlier today, but I guess you take what you can get sometimes.)

In preparation for my Scrapbooking retreat, I made some mixed-tapes. (Ok, I know no one makes or owns tapes anymore, but in my head, when you mix them, they're tapes, not cds or playlists. haha!) It's kind of a tradition at our retreat that everyone brings music to share with everyone. It means that you sometimes have to listen to music you don't like (hello too many hair bands and WAY too much country for MY taste), but it also means you get to share some of your favorite music with other people and PERHAPS introduce someone to their new favorite song/singer/group.

I take this responsibility VERY seriously!!! I'm a music-junky. I'm constantly playing my mom (poor thing) some new great song and making her LISTEN TO THE LYRICS (which I think she rarely does, but humors me in pretending to - she's not nearly as serious about this activity as I - hahaha!).

So the game for today? If you could make a mixed tape of TEN songs to share with everyone you knew, what 10 would make your list? (I'm putting these parameters for this game with the thought in the back of my head that I'll NEVER be able to keep it to 10.) Feel free to share any explanations if you like, or just your 10 songs if that's more your style. :)

I'm going to limit myself to 10 by picking kind of my favorites from different genres/moods/styles of music. (I mean, I could pick 10 EACH of Billy Joel, Jack Johnson, Ginny Owens, Harry Connick, Michael Bubble, etc. and not even be close to sharing all the faves I'd love to share.) If I can find it, I may even put YouTube link for each of mine so you can ACTUALLY EXPERIENCE the fabulousness that is my list. (I realize this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever said maybe. haha! Did I mention that I take my music-sharing seriously?!?)

1.) Classical (and most relaxing/spiritually inspiring):

"Suite for Solo Cello No. 1" by Bach (played by Yo Yo Ma)




2.) Funniest EVER:

"White & Nerdy" by Wierd Al Yankovic
(Disclaimer: I'm not generally a hip-hop kind of gal, but this song CRACKS ME UP!!!!)
*Bonus for me? The video has Donny Osmond, and I LURVE HIM!!!!!




3.) Can't Help but Shake that Bootie Song:

"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson



4.) Speaks to my Soul in Some Unknown Way Song:

"Let's Stay Together" by Al Green




5.) Best Prayer Song:

"Own Me" by Ginny Owens
*Disclaimer: I am making no statements about this dance at all. It's just the ONLY video I could find of Ginny singing the song herself. :(




6.) Most Likely to Make Me Picture Choreography In My Head Song:

"Feeling Good" by Michael Buble




7.) Duet I'd Most Like to Sing with my Hubby on Stage Somewhere:

"Quando Quando Quando" by Michael Buble
*Yes, I really, really like his stuff




8.) My First Dance at my Wedding Song (not really a category, but couldn't leave it off):

"Recipe for Making Love" by Harry Connick, Jr.



**Note: I discovered these last two songs through someone else's "mixed tape" type sharing. See, sharing your favorite songs is so valuable. You might give someone their new favorite song. :)

9.) Song Most Likely to Give Me Romantic Goose Bumps and Help Me Mellow:

"Persuasion" by Richard Thompson




10.) Best Human Voice that Sounds Like a Trumpet (plus a really cute love song to boot):
* If you get a chance, find this on his cd. It's better there than any live video I could find. Sorry for the comment at the beg of this video and the one at the end of the song.

"Diggin' me" by Martin Sexton




Shew! I DID IT!!! Please share YOUR list with me. (Either list it in my comments, or make a fun YouTube list on your own blog and leave me a link in the comments.) Who knows! Maybe you'll introduce me to a new favorite! :)

L&S,
Leslie

Sunday, February 21, 2010

And the winner is...

Are you overflowing with anticipation?

The winner of our

FREE4AllFridays!


scrapbooking pages is...

(drumroll, please...)

#7, Jane Anne:
"I visited Mimi's. Then, I came here. Then, I went back there (and commented) and then I came here. Whew! I'm tired."

Congratulations, Jane Anne! Looks like you'll have just what you wanted for that crafting basket!

*For instructional purposes, I counted entries (including 2 in Brandie's one comment and subtracting the non-entry-related comments and Michelle's comment that stated she didn't want to take the pages from someone who would use them - ha!), which totaled 30. I went to Random.org and it generated the number 7, so counting down (again, Brandie's 1 comment having 2 entries in it) and got to Jane Anne. :)
Jane Anne, email me with your address and I'll get those pages in the mail to you.
And Tarah (from Eyeglasses), if you'll email me, I have some leftover supplies, so I bet we could work something out. :)
L&S,
Leslie

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Free 4 All Fridays!!!

FREE4AllFridays!




Today is my VERY FIRST Free4All Friday giveaway on my blog!

(Aren't you excited for me?!?)



Today, I'll be giving away this little scrapbooking set. It's 4 (2 sets of 2 facing pages) custom-made Scrapbooking pages ready to have your pictures set in them. It also includes stickers and buttons to embellish each set.


There's a cute Valentine's (or anniversary - or wedding, as I used the page for) set and a cute St. Patrick's Day set.





Here's the finished product done two different ways for the Valentine's set:




*There's a little pocket on the page you'll get, but it's removable for another picture if you prefer, as shown above.*





Here's how YOU'LL receive them (plus the sizes to cut your pictures to fit):





To win this Free4All Friday, you can:


*Leave me a comment

*Follow me and leave me a comment saying you do

*Go leave Mimi a comment here, and leave me a comment saying you did

* Blog about this giveaway on your own blog and comment me with a link to it.


That's FOUR CHANCES to win!


I will select via RANDOM.ORG and the winner will be posted Sunday evening!!!!


Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

A Change... No, Really!!!

Ok, so I REALLY AM committed to losing weight this year. Not just 5 pounds, but at least a major chunk of what I need to lose - hopefully ALL of it. How awesome would it BE if 2010 was the year I got to my goal weight?!? I am doing visualizations and setting goals, one of which I put in writing here and can still meet if I really work at it!

Here's the problem. Being a full-time mom of a 20 month old, holding a more than full-time job with unpredictable hours, keeping up (well, sort of) this house of ours, and, oh yeah, there's that husband thing, already ends in my sleep-time usually being 6 hours or less. (Btw, shout-out to the Hubs. Today's his Birthday!!! Happy Birthday, baby!)

Now all the "losing weight" advice you can find says that you need at least 7 hours of sleep a night to be able to lose or maintain weight. Add to that the fact that for me to lose weight, I have to exercise, and for me to exercise, I have to cut even MORE time off of that sleep time.

You see WHY I have a hard time committing to exercising everyday, even when I'm REALLY committed to the process? It's REALLY not the exercise I'm avoiding. It's the 5 hours or less of sleep that I'm avoiding. Man do I get exhausted!!!

So I did 2 weeks of the "30 day Shred". I got up WAY before the sun or anyone else in my family and didn't get NEARLY enough sleep for 2 weeks and DID NOT LOSE ONE OUNCE!!! (Yep, that's right, not an OUNCE, much less a pound.) It was a little momentum-killing, so I took a few days off, then got a stomach bug, and just never got myself back up pre 6am again. (I did, however, lose 3.5 pounds with the stomach bug and have managed to keep that off. haha!)

So here's the plan. I'm not Catholic, so I wasn't raised being required to give up something for Lent, but I AM Methodist, so I do observe Lent as a time of prayer and a season in my spiritual life. When I was in college, I started using Lent as a time to ADD good habits/behaviors to my life (rather than using it as a time to deprive myself of chocolate, etc.). I figure if there's something I need in my life (adding water, quitting Coke, adding more consistent devotional time are a few of the things I've done in the past), doing it with a specific devotion to God and making myself more of the temple he wants me to be is pretty good motivation.

SOOOOO.........

(Surely you're good enough at foreshadowing to guess what's coming.)

I've decided this year for Lent, I will commit myself to exercise. I will use Lent to work on making my body a healthier temple for God and creating better habits to teach my sweet little girl, so she can always keep HER body a healthy temple for God. I'm going to do at least 30 min. of exercise every weekday morning and at least 30 min. of extra cardio at least 2 days a week whenever I can fit it in. Most days, that will mean "Shred" in the mornings because it is a killer workout and I can get it done in a reasonable time (even IF I didn't lose weight the first two weeks last time).

I started again this morning. No quitting this time!!!

CHANGE!!!!!!!!!

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Wordless Wednesdays...

...ok, well, not even close to wordless this time, but...

She was NOT interested in any performer holding her. I love that I snapped the lady pouting. haha!


She really DID enjoy the show as long as she had one of us, bear, and the fingers. haha!


We were on the floor watching performers from mere feet away and all Tucker was interested in was, "Ah Paw doe?" (Where'd Paw go?). So we helped her find him and she waved to him instead of watching the show. :)

Drew "got to" (read: Leslie jumped up and down to volunteer him without his knowledge) participate in the pre-show show. :)


(Any regular readers of the blog able to guess why we have a million pictures of these two particular animals? Believe it or not, I was pretty obsessed with them both even before there were strong feelings about any team related to them.)



For more Wordless Wednesdays visit 5 Minutes For Mom.


Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

A question...

Lately, I've been thinking a good bit about change. Partly the new year. Partly the new decade in my life. Partly the new size in my jeans. (tee-hee). Partly (or maybe mostly) the new level of irriation I have with my job most days.

I've been thinking of changing habits (cutting out soda, picking healthier snacks, somehow creating an extra 1.5-2 hours a day for exercise and the pre-post build up for that), changing jobs (maybe finding something else to do for now - to pay the bills for now that is), changing careers (ok, actually FINDING a career - hence the "for now" part of the above job lines), changing relationships (working on communicating my needs better rather than keeping quiet and expecting people to read my mind, being better about keeping in touch), changing my spending habits (Does anyone really NEED 10 tubes of Chapstick?!?), maybe even changing my weekends and evenings in the "going back to school" sort of way.

Generally speaking, I would describe myself as a change-embracer. Once a change is underway, I get EXCITED about it. I find all the good points and celebrate them! (Hate the move, but love the new place.) But here's what I've discovered in my recent move towards change. Although I adore new things, places, abilities, etc., I HATE getting the change started. Taking the first REAL STEP towards change is nearly impossible for me.

I would LOVE a new job once I had it in hand, but actually sending out resumes? YIKES!!! I will LOVE my new body once it gets here, but finding that extra time in my day without cutting my sleep time to below 5 hours - DAUNTING AT BEST!!! I would love relationships where I never thought twice about expressing my desires/needs, but actually getting up the nerve (and the clear thoughts) to say what's needed in the right moment - NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE for me! (This one isn't Drew-specific. I'm just a conflict-avoider in ALL relationships. Always have been.)

Right now, I feel kind of stuck. I see the change out there and know I can get excited about it once it's here, but taking that first step off the cliff - I'm just not quite there yet on some of this.

So how do you guys feel about change? Are you change-embracers? Change-avoiders? Change-enacters?

And what's the kick in the butt you need to make change happen?

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Thursday, February 11, 2010

A Project


Here's what I have.
Some of it's going to Grandparents. (Grandparents, if you read that, please disregard.)
Some of it's going to teachers.
One (or maybe two) of those brownies might make it into my tummy. (I already sent 3 of them to school with the hubs.)
There's a basic plan. Hope it turns out.
I might even include a few surprises not seen in the picture. :)
Valentine's, here we come!!!
Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Wordless Wednesdays...

...almost.

Can you guess what our current favorite activity is? Our babysitter laughed last night when I told her that her favorite thing to "play" is having books read to her, but when we got home, she said, "You were right. We read just about every book you have." haha!
*The second gentleman is our good friend Will. He will spend HOURS doing whatever Tucker wants him to. :)


For more Wordless Wednesdays, go to 5 Minutes for Mom.

L&S,
Leslie

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Be Jealous! Be VERY Jealous!!!

My week is CRAZY hectic! I spent the first day with T still home from daycare with a fever, working a crazy earnings day, mother in law at the house keeping Tucker, then birthday dinner for aforementioned MIL, TWO trips to the pharmacy to STILL not have the ear drops I was trying to get, 1.5 hours of folding laundry (WHY do I let it get so out of control?!?), and bed. We tried to get the house presentable as we have one of the hubs's graduated students coming to keep T tonight while I go hear his choir sing at Spivey Hall. (For those of you who don't know, this is a BIG deal and I am VERY excited. It's the coolest concert venue!!!) I also raced around between all that other stuff yesterday to find a black formal that would fit me, I could get hemmed before Thursday evening, and that didn't break my bank. (I got 2 out of 3 and figured that was better than being naked at the thing the dress is for.) I still have to do at least one more load of laundry, pay bills, pack my bags and Tucker's bags, work Three full days' worth of work in the next 2 days (AWESOME!) and get Drew's Valentine's and birthday gifts. SHOOOOOO!!!

Want to know why you should be jealous?

Because on Friday morning, we're taking Tucker here:

Then driving here:


and staying here:

We'll be attending 3 wedding-related parties and a wedding, all of which will involve some of this:

and then Saturday morning, we'll be getting one of these:


and Saturday AND Sunday, I'll get to do this:


past this:



WOOHOO!!!!!

*Of course, this is the first time in her whole life that I will ever have slept in a different building from my sweet baby, so I'm sure there will be at least a little of this (mostly from me):


But I will survive (as will she), since she'll be with them:

*Note to self: Get a more recent (and better) picture of T with Paw and Nona!


And I'll come back relaxed and rested and ready to do it all again.

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Monday, February 08, 2010

You're Gonna Miss This - Saturday Mornings

Although I miss sleeping in TERRIBLY, I cherish our Saturday mornings. Somewhere between 6:30 and 7am on Saturdays, Tucker wakes up and we bring her to our bed. This allows us some middle ground between the sleeping-in we want and the waking-up Tucker demands. ;) She will usually play-sleep with us for a few minutes (during which time we REALLY sleep), then she proceeds to work her way down to the floor, closes the bedroom door (such a little helper so we don't have to stress about her getting herself to the stairs while we inadvertently snooze), and begins to play.

Sometimes she finds anything of Mommy's and Daddy's and takes it to the appropriate person. "Mommy's Shoes", "Daddy's Pants", "Mommy's juice"

Sometimes she walks into the bathroom, closes both doors, and says, "Bye bye," and then runs about in there, opening the doors for a peek every minute or so.

Sometimes she finds her train (a V tech toy that stays in our bathroom for entertainment when she's in there) and begins bringing me the blocks she knows, proudly stating what is on the block.

Last Saturday, this was the collection I got on my pillow as I drifted between wake and sleep. Early, early moments, but SO SWEET. Life is GOOD!

I will MISS this one day when it's 10am and I'm trying to WRESTLE her awake to get to something. :)


What sweet moments in your life are YOU going to miss when life moves on?

L&S,
Leslie
Disclaimer: I usually post a link to the creator of "You're Gonna Miss This" moments, but when I clicked on her blog this morning, it opened somewhere around 60 windows before I could get it to stop. It froze my computer and I had to reboot. I decided not to do that to any of you. :)

Friday, February 05, 2010

Not my favorite numbers...

Want to know what two of my LEAST favorite numbers are? (You KNOW you do!!!)

104.7 (degrees that is)
3:30am

Yep, we had FUN in the Bowers household last night.

After a morning of super fun (blech) stomach virus for me, I was called around 10:45am by the daycare saying T had a temp of 103! Now, forget the NORMAL reaction of panic when you hear this news. I had the added joy of not being able to get vertical without passing out and/or getting sick. How was I going to GET the 20 month old (OH my gosh, I can't believe we hit 20 months tomorrow!!!) home, and once I got her here, how was I going to look after her if she did anything other than sleep?!?

I told the daycare that I would come and get her if they would bring her out to me so I wouldn't infect the whole daycare with a stomach bug. I hung up the phone, stood up to go brush my teeth and find a hat (that no-vertical thing impairs the showering abilities, ya know), and almost instantly hit the floor. I was so light-headed that I all but passed-out.

CHANGE OF PLANS!!!

If I can't STAND, I certainly don't need to drive my car even the two blocks to daycare. So I called the hubs, interrupted his class, and broke the news that this, somehow, had to become his problem. He, sweet thing that he is, called his mom (who lives a little over an hour away) to come look after T the rest of the day. Then he got someone to cover his class, drove the 20 min from school to the daycare, brought the pitiful (and thankfully sleepy) baby to me, went to the store to buy soup, crackers, ginger ale, and Pedialyte just in case, and then went back to school to finish his day. (Super hubby INDEED!!!)

T's fever never got below 102 all day, and she spent most of the day in either my lap or Granna's lap, sucking the fingers, hugging the bear, and being pitiful. Around bedtime, I decided that I needed to call a nurse at Children's (which is who my Dr. connects us to after hours) and make sure that we didn't need to bring her in. I try not to be too chicken little about fevers, but I remember one of the things they always ask me when I DO call about fevers is, "Is she acting like herself - playing around, or is she listless?" Listless she was.

The nurse ran through the risk-factor questions, told me to give her Tylenol, and said she was going to call me back in an hour and a half and by then, T should be back to herself, playing around. (How great are these nurses that not only will they ask my questions, but they will call ME back to make sure things are good?!?) She was fine when the nurse called back, so she told me to continue with Tylenol every 4 hours, and to wake her up (WHAT?!?) at least every 4 hours during the night AWAKE ENOUGH TO BE PLAYFUL (WHAT?!?) to make sure she was responsive. "A sleeping baby doesn't necessarily mean a healthy baby."

We came up with a plan. There would be two wakings during our night. Drew would take the 11:30 shift (waking, temp check, Tylenol, playing, getting her back to sleep - yeah right!), and I would take the 3:30 shift (boo!).

At 11:30, Drew's alarm went off to wake him to go check on her. I drifted back asleep and was ALMOST there when I heard, "Leslie? Leslie? The thermometer says 104.7." Now, I know the nurse told me that her behavior is MUCH more important than the number, but 104.7 is SCARY to me no matter what!!! (I hear that temp and my mind immediately goes to the "This is your brain on drugs" commercial - eggs frying!)

So we called the nurseline back and after running through the whole riggamaroe again, she assured me that we could stick with our original plan - Tylenol and awake enough to be responsive every 4 hours, then plan on making a Dr. appt. first thing in the morning.

At the 3:30am (seriously, I HATE that time of day) check, the temp was down to 101. By morning, it was 100. We went to the doctor. Want to know what the official diagnosis was? "She has a temperature. There are no other symptoms, so I really don't know what's causing it, but it looks like it's on its way out, so that's good." Glad I could get out in the freezing rain with sick Mommy and sick baby and pay you $30 for that piece of wisdom! :) haha!

Hope you guys had a better Thursday and Friday than we did!

Head on over to 5 Moms and He & Me + 3 for a super-girly giveaway! (For those of you who are a little less blog-savvy, you can click on those blog names and it will take you right to them.)


Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Calling in Sick

A stomach virus (for me) and high fever (for T) took over our household today. Blogging activity will resume shortly...

L&S,
Leslie

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

When you didn't even know it...

Don't you hate it when you get your hopes up for something -- something you didn't even really know you wanted THAT badly, and then you don't get it? Suddenly the NOT HAVING IT (which was really always the case) is devestating and completely unbearable? It's like even though you might not have been happy with the before, you never realized how unhappy you were until you started imagining it differently. Now, even though nothing changed, you can't bear the thought of another day the old way?

I was taught a long time ago when praying for guidance, to not only pray for God to open the RIGHT doors, but to CLOSE the wrong ones, so you can't make a mistake in following your own will. I always do that and I firmly believe it has helped me make some good choices in life. I believe that about this closed door as well (sad though I may be with my lot today).

Now, if I can just find that open window. I KNOW it must be around here somewhere...

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

**For any parentals or giddy friends out there, this is NOT about pregnancy. haha! **

OH, and because someone asked -

"Shipoopies" is a word my father made up a LONG time ago as part of our expressions of love. He's notorious for making up words. (Just ask my husband.) So much so that there are tons of them I say without knowing they're made up until I say them to the hubs and get "WHAT?!?" Now, anytime I say a word (even a real one) that the hubs isn't familiar with, he'll go into a thing about my family and our stupid made up words. :)

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

A Mommy's Right

Ok, so I try to not do entire blogs of nothing but baby pics and videos anymore, but occassionally, I have to give SOMETHING special to the grandparents. Today, I'm just going to have a mass-video upload. Grandparents, enjoy. Other readers, I hope you enjoy them as well. These are basically all of my child being being either a goober or totally precious. You decide which are which. :)

**I apologize for the video quality. Most of the time, the only video camera I have in hand in a pinch is my cell phone.

This is what I see most days when I look to the backseat of my car (when Drew is driving, of course, or in my rearview mirror if I'm driving). I can't imagine WHERE she gets her love of music from. :)




Remember when I talked HERE about taking T to Sonic for dinner? Here's the fun my child has. My favorite part is that her hips NEVER STOP wiggling - even when the rest of her is concentrating on something else. :)





This is for Poppa, who always called her moro reflex when she was an infant "Touchdown!"




She found one of our LSU shakers and knew IMMEDIATELY what to do with it. I love that she turns the music on for shaking. :)




Tucker is at the age where she immediately mimics ANYTHING you say or do. Drew started doing what I call the "spider hand" and she immediately tried doing her own version of it. Too cute!





Thanks for the indulgence!
Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Monday, February 01, 2010

Meme Mondays - Clearing Your Head

There was a time in my life that after a really stressful week, when I finally found some down-time, I would have slept-in and then done absolutely NOTHING all day and loved it. That used to be my mind-clearing activity.

I find that these days, that my mind-clearing activities are very different. Now after a stressful week (like my doozie of a week last week), I find myself drawn to projects, not vegitating. Now, I don't mean that I go and tackle all the housecleaning (though my house could REALLY use it). But I find myself wanting to finish one of my creative projects - spend a few hours tackling the scrapbooking, sew an outfit for Tucker, paint something, etc. I want to spend my downtime getting my creativity out there and creating a finished project I can be proud of! The process helps my mind get off of all of my stress and focus on completion, and in the end, I have something adorable like

THIS


to show for it! My house is still a WRECK, but I got many, many of my crafting projects done. (I got another pair of pants made for Tucker, finished FIVE tutus, made a Valentine's day package for Carly, and made a small thing for Carly's birthday in OCTOBER - a little ahead on that one.) My head feels cleared, my craft pile is much smaller, and my heart is VERY happy with this adorable green outfit!
What do YOU do to clear your head? Answer in a comment, or if you take the activity to your own blog, put a link in my comments so I'll know to check it out.
Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie