Seen around the net…

I am often online looking for new items…either for myself, or something I feel my readers may like. Lately I have been thinking about organizing our home. My plan is to do it after my last class, which will be Monday, August 24, 2009. I plan to take a 4 month break before I return to school. During this time I plan to organize all areas of our home…including the basement.

Such neatness

I did some checking around, and I came across a really good site. Chez Larsson. There is some wonderful information on this site, and I am in awe of the neatness of the spaces organized. Here is a photo from the site.

I would definitely like to have a section of the basement as a laundry area, then the other side will be my craft section.

My wife and are are planning to re-do the bathroom soon. I love a neat, organized bathroom. In addition to it being neat and organized, it also has to be functional. It is of no use unless it’s functional. I came across some pictures of some really nice bathrooms over at decorology. Here are a few photos from that site.

It’s always good to have an area set aside to read and do some fun web surfing. This looks like a very comfy reading area. I would like to find an oversize chair like this one. (Both pictures below are found on decorology)

Since I have once again taken up knitting, I would love to knit this pillow and throw. I think it would go very well with the chair above. Since I don’t have that chair, I will just make it for the one that I do have.

I will add these to my project list

I am not only into decorating and crafty things. I also love books. I wish I had more time to read. Maybe once I take my 4 month break I will find some time between organizing to read.

I will put on my "to purchase" list

I came across a book today that I would like to add to my library. I love a book with a message. This book is Perseverance by Carolyn Rubenstein. Here is a little snippet of what the book is about.  “Imagine being in high school or college–enjoying the “best times of your life” –when you’re told you have cancer. Perseverance tells the gripping, first-person accounts of twenty such young people who persevered with an incredible sense of purpose and strength, while reminding everyone that now is everything.”

I think that a lot of times we lose sight of what’s important. I hear a lot of people say that “life is too short” and we must “live each day like it’s our last”, but how many of us actually do that? I know I don’t. When someone passes, I find myself saying how short life is, and how I need to live each day to the fullest. But, eventually the shock wears off and I am back to just existing. I think it’s time for me to actually live my life to the fullest. It should not have to take a potentially fatal illness to help us see that we should value each day. I hope you all will join me in living your life like it’s Golden.

Peace and blessings,

Michelle

 

Bucket list…

This is the list that I have been working on. I will continue to add to this list as I think of things I would like to do.

1. Be emotionally available to my partner. We are a unit. Her emotions, what she feels and why she feels it is just as important as what I feel, and vice versa.
2. Respect the ideas that my partner comes up with, and respect the decisions that she makes.
3. Have a baby. I want my soon to be wife and I to  raise our babies to be considerate of others. To be a caring  and giving human being. I want him/her to know who they are as a person. I want them to take a stand for what they believe is right.
4. I want my partner and I to build a family…one founded upon love and respect. I want us to be able to come together as a couple to make the best decisions for OUR family.  Not what others feel is best.
5.  Write a book about my life.
6. Come out to EVERYONE in my life.
7.  Go canoeing
8. Finally learn to play my guitar
9. Go to Paris
10. Go to Canada
11. Learn calligraphy
12. Take a bookbinding class
13. Learn to ice skate
14. Go snow tubing
15. See the rain forest
16. Adopt a child
17. Start a business of my own
18. See the Taj Mahal
19. Go to Egypt
20. Take a photography class
21. Take a ceramics class
22. Take a dance class with my partner
23. Read more
24. Continued higher education
25. Build a better relationship with my Dad
26. Build a Habitat for Humanity home
27. Volunteer more
28. Get back into the Big Brother, Big Sister program
29. Create a trust fund for our children
30. Create a home with an inviting, joyous, comfortable, loving atmosphere
31. Communicate more with my spouse
32. Learn to forgive more often
33. Go to Chicago to a taping of Oprah’s show
34. Adopt a family for Christmas
35. Go to Pike Place Market in Seattle
36. Donate books/supplies to schools
37. Be the type of wife that I want my wife to be to me.
38. Save more money from each check
39. Invest more often
40. Give of myself fully to my friends. Hold up my end of the friendship
41. Buy the items I need to do my crafts

 

emotional…

ever feel the need to have a good cry? that’s where I am right now. You have to have one every once in a while…clear out all the emotions that have built up over time. I’m still working on me. Still working on me.
I think it’s time for me to read “Yesterday I Cried” again. There are a lot of life lessons in that book. If you have not read it, you should.

Yesterday I Cried

---

I came home, went straight to my room,
sat on the edge of my bed,
kicked off my shoes,
unhooked my bra,
and I had myself a good cry.

I’m telling you,
I cried until my nose was running all over
the silk blouse I got on sale.
I cried until my ears were hot.
I cried until my head was hurting so bad
that I could hardly see the pile of
soiled tissues lying on the floor at my feet.

I want you to understand,
I had myself a really good cry yesterday.

Yesterday, I cried,
for all the days that I was too busy,
or too tired,
or too mad to cry.

I cried for all the days, and all the ways,
and all the times I had dishonored,
disrespected, and
disconnected my Self from myself,
only to have it reflected back to me
in the ways others did to me
the same things I had already done to myself.

I cried for all the things I had given,
only to have them stolen;
for all the things I had asked for that
had yet to show up;
for all the things I had accomplished,
only to give them away,
to people in circumstances,
which left me feeling empty,
and battered and plain old used.

I cried because there really does
come a time when the only thing left
for you to do is cry.

Yesterday, I cried.
I cried because little boys get
left by their daddies;
and little girls get forgotten by their mommies;
and daddies don’t know what to do, so they leave;
and mommies get left, so they get mad.

I cried because I had a little boy,
and because I was a little girl,
and because I was a mommy
who didn’t know what to do,
and because I wanted my daddy to be there
for me so badly until I ached.

Yesterday, I cried.
I cried because I hurt.
I cried because I was hurt.
I cried because hurt has no place to go
except deeper into the pain that
caused it in the first place,
and when it gets there,
the hurt wakes you up.

I cried because it was too late.
I cried because it was time.

I cried because my soul knew that I didn’t know
that my soul knew everything I needed to know.

I cried a soulful cry yesterday,
and it felt so good.

It felt so very, very bad.

In the midst of my crying,
I felt my freedom coming,
Because Yesterday,
I cried with an agenda.
(Iyanla Vanzant,
from her book Yesterday I Cried:
Celebrating the Lessons of Living
and Loving)