Day 203 and 204- Nightly Roundup

Greg has been out of town the last few days, back tonight, and we are so glad to have him home! Kai asked non-stop, often weepy, when daddy was going to be home.
My heart and admiration really go out to every single parent out there, doing it on your own is TOUGH work! And my heart and sympathy go out to every kid who has parents in the military. It's hard to miss mommy or daddy. We all owe a lot to those who wear the uniforms of our country.

Generally a productive few days.
Marriage - check - will count keeping the house standing and the kids fed and homework done;-).
Parenting - Lots of together time. Kirk and I are continuing with his reading and math for a bit each night and he continues to show progress. Even 15 minutes a day has a positive, noticeable cumulative effect.
Business - Continuing to work on website and blog about parenting and learning. I've taken a few articles I wrote here last year that I thought applied to the idea behind the company and posted those.
Book - Nada.
FI - Community Garage Sales in a neighboring town - can you say FUN!! And got Kirk's next few years of soccer shoes for $2 each, and a huge variety of household useful items all at great deals. Also sold $15 more in plants from the drive and have been doing good about eating at home almost solely.
Spirit - Did my kind acts each day this week.
Health - Last two nights I did cardio or yoga - tonight I my take off. Also eating far less sugar (decided to forgo several 20 ounce Dr. Peppers this past week).
Garden - Just loving selling plants each day and it forces me to focus on what I have rather than constantly searching for more.
House - Spent 10 minutes on the garage. Hoping to have a garage sale the week after next.
Vocab - cataclysm, cerebrate, clerisy, concomitant
Good wishes to all!! Cheerio. Eileen

Day 205 & 206

Happy, wonderful, good day!;-) Helps that the sun is out and I have oodles of flowers blooming in the yard.
Marriage - check.
Parenting - Swim lessons, trip to Noodles (last one for while as we're sticking to our budget).
Business - Worked on website. At Greg's suggestion, I posted at a few other parent sites and this helped. We had 16 views today.
Book - Will do some tonight.
FI - Used a 50 percent off coupon and saved up the dry cleaning for a long time and saved $30. Sold $20 in plants from the driveway last night. My mom gave me a gift of $70 - just because - when she was visiting - gotta love moms!
Spirit - Brought a lovely bouquet to a friend today.
Garden - Dug up three more plants - Siberian iris to sell.
Health - Will still do cardio yet tonight.
House - Nada
Vocab. affaire de coer, alacrity, animus, anthropocentric

Day 207 - Nightly Roundup

Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius. Comte de Buffon

Marriage - check.
Parenting - Spent some time throwing rocks in our favorite pond today.
Business - Working on website blogs.
Books - will read a bit more about the English soldiers in the Revolution tonight.
FI - No spend other than $4.51 for a bagel and unlimited iced tea refills - which is overpriced for the nutrition value, but it is a quiet place with wi-fi and I got a lot done.
Garden - Sold $12 in plants from the end of the drive and dug more for next weeks church plant sale to benefit Habitat for Humanity.
Health - yoga and spinach pasta for a healthy dinner.
Spirit - Good deed today.
House - Brought in a huge lovely bouquet for the front hall.
Bus. Vocab - abjure, abrade, abrogate, abstruse

Day 208 - Nightly Roundup

Kai enjoying a light rain today on the deck.

Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one's aim. John D. Rockefeller 1874-1960 - American Millionaire and Philanthropist.

Marriage - Check.
Parenting - LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of one on one time. I think we're all ready for school/work tomorrow;-).
Business - Will work a bit more on our site tonight.
Book - Will read some back story tonight.
FI - Spent nothing, went nowhere!!! Woohoo!
Spirit - Will count family time and watching the video - Anne of Green Gables - cried when Mathew died.
Garden - Got some iris and mums during the city wide sales my mom and I attended and got most of them in the ground during a light rain today.
Health - Did yoga, stayed within 35 or so grams of sugar.
House - Brought in flowers for kids' rooms.
Bus. Vocab. - Got to get to this!
Good night and good wishes.

Day 209 - Nightly Roundup

Kai deciding he needed to wear curlers, just like mom;-).
My mom, Grandma, spending a few days with us.
Going to a conference with a speaker on Wisdom and Meditation.

It's been a really full last few days. Plugging along.
Marriage - check. Had a good talk about expectations and mutual goals.
Parenting - Lots and lots of one on one time.
Business - More work on website.
Book - Good meeting with writers on Thursday.
FI - Really watching our spending closely of late - which is a good feeling. Not only spending less money, but less time shopping.
Spirit - I found the meditation conference helpful.
Health - Really cutting down my sugar intake - goal is to get it down to 32 grams a day.
Garden - Mom and I went to citywide garage sales on Friday and I got some iris and some mums and some daylilies - fun!
House - staying pretty tidy these past few days.
Bus. Vocab. Nada - need to work on this.
Best wishes.

Day 211 Nightly Roundup

Kirk and Kai helping unload the dishwasher.

Only in growth, reform and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.

Plugging along. Our website got all of 23 views, so I don't think we're about to break out there commercially;-). Days are busy with a series of highs and lows. I keep reminding myself that stress is all self-induced, but that doesn't make it go away. But I am grateful for all the great things in my life, and enough whining!
Marriage - check.
Parenting - Good quality time with each. Kai is having bedtime issues saying he's scared to sleep in his room so I've been letting our dog sleep there too, but between his requests for water, for me to stay, for the dog, etc. bedtime is stretched out to 40 minutes or more.
Business - Just a posting.
Book - Nada
FI - Did a great job at the grocery store staying in our budget.
Spirit - Posting here may be it for today. It's nice to think about even the tiniest of baby steps and to hope others are finding ways to inch closer to their dreams.
Health - will do 10 minutes of yoga tonight.
Garden - Sold another $8 in plants from the driveway and have had some nice conversations with my neighbors, who stop by to chat when they browse the plants.
House - Is actually very, very tidy and clean as I type - Hurrah!
Bus. Vocab. Nada

Day 212 - Nightly Roundup

Kai and Greg getting a much needed nap this past weekend.

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. Theodore Isaac Rubin

The days are flying by, in a good way! Hope all is well with everyone.
Marriage - check - we each made a list of five things we either appreciate most or most would like the other to do so we could be more effective in being a good spouse to each other;-).
Parenting - Kirk is off school the next three days, so we'll have lots of good time together and my mom is coming up so that will be fun. It's after nine and I just heard Kai walking around upstairs in his room - he's having a hard time going to sleep lately. Any sleep easy secrets for an almost three year old would be much welcomed.
Business - Worked on the website blog.
Book - Ironed out the writer issue
FI - Eating out of cupboards more
Spirit - Did my one kind act today
Health - did 20 minutes yoga
House - Tidied up house
Bus. Vocab. Nada

Day 213 - Nightly Roundup

Marriage - check.
Parenting - Working to reduce the kids suger intake, and mine as well. Trying to keep it under 30 grams a day, and that is surprisingly hard!
Business - Worked more on the website.
Book - Running into a few snags - will have a meeting tomorrow.
Spirit - Definitely running into a bit of the blues/stress lately. Need to work on accentuating the positive...
Health - Will count that reduced suger thing.
FI - No spend day.
Garden - Having fun digging up plants for the church sale and the end of my driveway sale.
House - Did a bit of work on the basement - still lots to go.
Bus. Vocab. Nada.

How to be a savvy cheapskate - good article.

Thought this was timely.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/How-to-Be-a-Savvy-usnews-3454225752.html?x=0

You're Gonna Miss This - Good song!

If you're not a country music fan, you probably haven't heard this song by Trace Adkins. But I heard this on the radio tonight and it was a good reminder to enjoy these days. Best wishes! Eileen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9XfJxMY8A&feature=related

Day 215 - Website is up for company!

Hope all is well and you're each progressing toward your goals. The big milestone for me this week is getting our company website up. I'm learning computer stuff right and left. I used Wordpress for this beta site. In time, we will hire professionals for the site, but this is a good, and much more frugal, start. Come and visit at curiositycottage.com. Good wishes!!! Eileen

Day 217 - Nightly roundup

There are no impossible dreams, just our limited perception of what is possible. Beth Mende Conny

Each second you can be reborn. Each second there can be a new beginning. It is a choice. It is your choice. Clearwater

Marriage - check.
Parenting - Kickball and soccer and lots of story time.
Business - Working on 10 initial articles/blogs for the company website about reading and learning.
Book - Running into some story line problems with the writers that we need to figure out.
FI - reworking our budget - our expenses over the last six months have really gone up due to less time and care spent in this area.
Spirit - Chatted with my mom and a good friend today.
Garden - Sold one plant and dug up others to sell.
Health - 30 cardio and a wee bit of yoga.
House - Pulled out my old fly lady routine to start tomorrow.
Bus. Vocab. - wash sale, repatriation, equity investment, import license.

Day 218 - Nightly roundup

Kirk, Kai and a neighbor friend floating a sailboat in the fountain.

The great essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for. Joseph Addison, 1672-1719, English Essayist
Marriage - check.
Parenting - Spent a lot of time with Kirk on his reading and math. He's a trooper! Kai and I read stories.
Business- Continuing to work on our to be website.
Book - nada.
Spirit - Had a nice chat with my mom.
Health - 30 cardio.
FI - Reworking our budget.
Garden - Using lots of leaf mulch on the flower beds.
House - nada
Bus. Vocab - nada

Day 219 - Nightly Roundup

The root of the matter is a very simple old-fashioned thing, a thing so simple that I am almost ashamed to mention it for fear of the derisive smile with which wise cynics will greet my words. The thing I mean - please forgive me for mentioning it - is love, or compassion. If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a guide to action, a reason for courage, an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty. Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970 English Philosopher, Mathematician, and Social Reformer.
Took the day off and just enjoyed life! Seems like life is just flying sometimes. I talked to my dad about that on the phone the other day and he felt the same way. There is an interesting irony in that the more wonderful life is, the longer you wish it could last and the more occasional pangs of sorrow that it is so limited - sort of a sour and sweet/yin and yang sort of thing.

Kirk and the neighbor kids agreed to help pick up several wheelbarrow loads of sticks and branches in exchange for root beer floats all around. Kai got to join in the floats, much to Kirk's chagrin.....Mom, he didn't pick up sticks!!!!!!
Best wishes.

Day 220 - Nightly Roundup

Kai looking with awe and wonder at the fire station...

Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day. Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790
Marriage - Check.
Parenting - Took the kids to a park today.
Business - Worked on our upcoming website a bit.
Book - Will read a bit more background info on the Revolutionary War tonight.
Spirit - Sent out some thank you cards to family and friends.
Health- Will count about two hours of gardening.
FI - Went to a big church/school sale and got some wonderful games, books, and puzzles for the kids. Total spent was $18 and we will have a lot of things to do for the upcoming summer.
Garden - Two hours of cleaning up brush and plants, etc.
House - Worked on the never-ending job of cleaning the kitchen;-)
Vocab. Nada.

Day 221 - Nightly roundup

This will be my first time to try and post a video. Kai and I were working on his letters on the back porch this afternoon. My new "smart phone" purchased after my old cell went to the great beyond has video taping abilities - something I only just realized. Good wishes to all! Marriage - check. Parenting - Will have to count playing basketball with Kirk and taking a long walk with both kids through the woods. Business - We decided to save money and build our own website using Google apps. Book - Reading a book about King George for back story for the books. Garden - Did some raking. Spirit - Called some family and friends today and had really nice chats all around. FI - The choice to build our own website should be a considerable cost savings. Health - Fairly healthy meals all day. House - nada Bus. Vocab. Nada - but I am listening to book tapes on vocab.

Day 221 Nightly Roundup

Believe in the best, thing your best, study your best, have a goal for the best, never be satisfied with less than your best, try your best, and in the long run things will turn out for the best. Henry Ford

Good day all around.

Parenting - We played a fun numbers bingo game with dinner, then the kids helped with the dishes, Kirk washing and Kai drying. For sanitation issues, I promptly loaded them into the dishwasher - which neither thought was odd, and was happy that they had "helped". Then we watched two videos I'd gotten - one is a series of nursery story songs where the words appear under the pictures. The kids loved the songs, which were based on familiar nursery rhymes like the old woman who lived in the shoe and Hickory Dickory Dock.

Business - We're looking into different ways of creating prototypes - I mentioned Fab Lab - but it looks like we would first need a designer before we could use them.

Book -I met with the writers and we worked through some difficult issues of how to set up the opening scenes, how to deal with the time travel, and how to deal with the various issues of war.

Garden - nada

Spirit - Watched with the kids a video from the PBS series on The Children's Book of Virtues - good reminders in cartoon form to live a good life;-).

Health - Second to last meeting with my friend/personal trainer.

FI - Doing a good job using up what's in the cupboards and fridge to put off restocking till we use up everything.

Day 222 - Nightly Roundup

What is opportunity, and when does it knock? It never knocks. You can wait a whole lifetime, listening and hoping, and you will hear no knocking. None at all. You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny. You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, and build a self-image with which you are able to live. Maxwell Maltz.

Happy Springtime! Things are clicking along. We didn't make it to the second round of the business plan competition, but in a way that frees up more time for the work itself.

We hope to have a website up within two more weeks and we'll publish the first few chapters for feedback. I learned of something called the Fab Lab in Appleton, WI, apparently a university affiliated lab where they can make prototypes of almost anything- I'm THRILLED to learn about this for our next step - prototypes.

And if you will recall, much of my initial inspiration for starting came from an amazing woman named Sarah Manski, CEO of a company called Posi-Pair and they just launched today!! Many congrats. If you are into green and like to know where the stuff you eat and wear and use comes from and how toxic or pure it is, you need to visit their website. www.posipair.com

Marriage - Check.
Parenting - I've been reading a book called "What it's like to be three" written from the perspective of a three year old. Kai will be three mid-summer and "No" and "sorry - can't do that" are his favorite expressions. He's more emotional than usual, which can try my patience. The book really helped shed some light on all of this as far as what's going on in that little blond head and I've been using different strategies - getting down to his level to talk, using lots and lots of eye contact, more one on one playtime and all this seems to be helping. Kai helped me at the laundry mat this week to wash the hall rugs.
Business - Had a wonderful lunch today with the founder of Posi-pair and another woman starting a business. It was inspiring and fun to spend time with them - both women, like me, with no background in business but striking out for something they feel passionate about.
Book - Have been thinking about doing more back story for each of the action figures based on the real lives of people in that period.
Spirit- Lots of gratitude today for all the good things in life.
Health - oops;-) Too many hits on the kids' Easter baskets.
Garden - Ordered 200 liatrus at 18 cents each. Bloomingbulb is having an overstock sale. If you're a garden fanatic, rush to the website;-). My daffodils are doing just great and my magnolia tree just shines.
FI - We skipped our post swimming Noodles outing tonight and just had a 39 cent box of Kraft mac and cheese and a rousing round of go fish at dinner.
House - Took down all the Easter decorations and put vases of daffodils, Hyacinth, and tulips in the kids' rooms and the kitchen. Will do the rest of the house Friday.
Bus. Vocab. - nada for tonight - but I did get a great vocabulary building cassette program at a thrift store in Hawaii - seriously;-). I will start using it tomorrow or Friday.

Utilizing car time to build reading skills.

I touched on this topic briefly earlier, but wanted to do a posting on it as I've found it so helpful.

As a busy mom, formerly a law professor and now a CEO, I’m always looking for ways to utilize time most efficiently. And in car time to and from the grocery store, swimming lessons, the post office, the library, and grandparents’ homes and in spare “I’m bored” times at home before supper, I’ve found a golden opportunity to build vocabulary, creativity, and reading skills for my two sons.

The “gold” is book tapes, records, and cds. We got a Fisher Price record player and some assorted book stories at a garage sale last summer. Kirk loved everything about these. He would put on a record (Star Wars is a favorite), pick up the book and listen over and over.

This helped with pre-reading skills from following a story well enough to turn pages at the right time and checking to see if the pictures matched the narrator’s words. The sound effects add to the excitement and I’ve been spared reading “The Empire Strikes Back” thirty times in two days;-).

Recently I’ve been picking up Curious George book cds at the library for two year old Kai. I’m fascinated at his ability to follow the story turning pages at the correct time by following music tones – good for concentration. He now will point at words as well. He doesn’t point to the “right” words, but he is getting the concept that those letter configurations are linked to the story.

Today in the car, he set aside the book and just listened to the story repeating phrases after the author. He loved the line, “And there were bubbles, and bubbles and bubbles!” And he echoed this line with great expression and enthusiasm.

I’ve started keeping a small basket of various children’s stories in the mini-van. Many were picked up at library book sales and have lost their accompanying books, but the kids seem to enjoy listening just the same. And as they have to make pictures in their heads this way, I hope it leads to more creativity.

In closing, I’m grateful to all those virtual aunts, uncles and grandparents telling my children amazing tales as we drive along County Highway B or as I mix up the Kraft macaroni and cheese at night. Best wishes. Eileen

Good to be home - An interesting article - Five Billionaires Who Live Below Their Means.

http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/109243/five-billionaires-who-live-below-their-means?mod=retire-planning

This was an interesting article. Thought it would be going to an appreciative audience;-). Eileen

Are we slathering toxins on our bodies with this stuff??

Greg and I stopped at the local library this afternoon and I picked up a copy of a book called "Gorgeously Green". I have a friend who is starting a company called Posi-Pair, which tracks chemicals and labor in various items we use, so I've become more interested in this issue.

The book was more than a wee bit scary. I couldn't check it out since I'm not a native, but will place it on hold for my library back home. According to the book, a huge number of the chemicals in cosmetics are not safety tested and many are toxic. The author, Sophie Uliano, included a "red alert" list of seven items that are the most dangerous and often found in shampoos, toothpastes, mouthwash and deodorants.

So I came home and looked at our sink area. Sure enough, our Listerine lists FD&C1, otherwise known as coal tar, a known carcinogen. My Mitchum's anti-perspirant has aluminum, listed as carcinogenic, toxic and mutagenic. I will have to do some more research on other products.

She lists several options for safe deodorants - Tom's of Maine and Dr. Hauschka's.
She also lists a website called www.safecosmetics.org that allows you to type in a product and get a rating from 0-10 (0 being the safest and 10 having the most dodgy chemicals) and suggests you avoid ratings of 5 or higher.

The author also has a great website I just checked out called www.gorgeouslygreen.com

A wee bit of frugality on a pricey vacation. And the results of a garden fanatic with unlimited resources;-)

As you might imagine, a trip to Hawaii is not a particularly frugal endeavor;-). We wouldn't have come at this stage in life is it hadn't been for my friend's wedding, but we're thrilled to be here. We booked on Orbitz and got a package deal for the hotel, airfare and rental car. Our friends belong to Costco, so the booked the trip through there.

The same friends like to drink wine with dinner (Sadly I prefer diet coke which is much less elegant). They went to the Costco here on the island when they arrived to get groceries and wine and then have been bringing their own chilled wine to dinner here at the restaurant (after the restaurant okayed it).

I got one large iced tea at the airport, then we also stopped for groceries and I got a box of Lipton cold brew so I have my morning iced tea and then sometimes a second when we go out and just bring it with me. We're lucky to have a fridge here and so we have ice.

We had the option of forgoing housekeeping for a $10 a day food card for their green movement and we've been taking that option. I also got our Hawaii book from the library before we came so we wouldn't have to buy a new one.

There are grills here at the resort so last night all six couples brought dishes to pass from the local stores and we had a picnic of sorts which was really lovely.
Though it looked intriguing, we passed on the most expensive entertainment like a helicopter ride in favor of less expensive tours. We will do one big tour on Friday called a zipline that takes you through some rain forests on a sort of cable. That will be wonderful.

I brought a lot of magazines for the trip from our free magazine bin at the library and since I had my computer, used the times waiting for layovers to update accounts with receipts. When you keep a closer daily tally, I find I'm more conscious of expenses.

Yesterday I visited the results of a woman with unlimited resources, a fabulous, fantastic tour of a place called Na Aina Kai botanical gardens. They were built by the ex-wife of the late Peanuts creator Charles Schultz and encompass 240 acres of tropical gardens, ocean beaches, an English maze, sculptures, etc. This place is unbelievable and I think I've met my match for garden fanaticism;-). She is still dreaming up new gardens and the place is amazing!!! It has now been turned into a public garden and she moved across the street, but for over 20 years, it was just her own passion and joy - how fun! And how kind that she now shares it with the world.

A very frugal sugar millionaire and the inside scoop on the white stuff;-)

The tour of the Grove Farm was fascinating. The man who built the plantation that eventually became what you currently buy as C & H sugar was named George Wilcox. He was incredibly frugal. He lived in a tiny home with a bedroom a sleeping porch and a small office and bathroom. When the porcelain soap holder broke on his tub, he just welded on an old sardine can. Nothing went to waste anywhere on the plantation.

His brother and his brother's wife and six children came to live on the plantation to help run it and they built a 16,000 square foot beautiful home about 20 yards from where George lived and the juxtaposition of lifestyles was interesting. He was at the time of his death one of the wealthiest men in the U.S., but lived a very austere lifestyle, possibly due to his upbringing as a missionary family's son (though that austerity didn't seem to rub off on his brother).

Ironically, I got the following email from a friend the same day I toured the plantation, though she didn't know I was going there.

I'm trying not to become too focused on this, but it has started to bother me more lately. Because we're traveling more I've noticed that the quality of our diet has suffered. I started paying more and more attention to how much added sugar my son was getting by drinking sodas. He won't drink water and milk isn't always avail. He will dring 100% juices if you can find them. I was at Taco Bell last night and decided to look at the nutrition guide. I looked up the sodas. My mouth dropped. Their smallest size Pepsi is 16oz. that is 56 grams of sugar or 13 tsp of sugar (12 tsp is 1/4 cup). Their 30 oz cup has 105 grams of sugar, 25 tsp sugar (24 tsp = 1/2 cup.). They actually have a 40 oz drink too! This has become a real battle for me. If he's already had a soda with lunch, I won't buy him a second drink later in the day . He thinks I'm a food Nazi. According to the guidelines below, it looks like an average 2000 cal a day diet should have around 32 grams of added sugar a day. One fountain drink blows this away. Then he grabs a yogurt (healthy right) and it has 27 grams more of sugar. I just feel like it's a losing battle. I've included some suggested guidelines below. I don't know how to get close to these without being a "food nag". There are "diet" sodas, but I don't like all of the weird science involved. Are you guys having the same battles with your kids? How are you handling it?

The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends no more than 8 teaspoons per day of added sugar based on a 2,000 calories/day diet. That's 32 grams if you're reading labels, and about 6% of your total calories for the day. Sounds like a lot, but believe me... it's not.

32 total grams sugar/ 4 grams per teaspoon = < 8 teaspoons added sugar/day

A Happy Wedding Day!

Two of my closest, dearest friends and college roommates here for our friend Emelia's wedding. A happy occasion!!!!

A bit of internal and external gloominess in paradise.....Is there such a thing as "vacation blues"???

I found myself quite gloomy and irritated yesterday and in the interest of meta cognition - thinking about how you think - a suggestion in a lot self-help books, I thought I'd explore it and see if any of you have thoughts or ideas.

It started with my own pettiness and ego, getting overly irritated with the concierge, and then having a hard time shaking those feelings - ego on my part all up in bristles. And ironically, on the flight down here, we'd seen someone get quite snippy with an airline person and in my at that point place of calm and good will, I turned to Greg and pronounced, Buddha like, "It's easy to be kind to others and in a good mood when everything is going your way, who can't do that?? It's when things are not going good that you really get to test your graciousness and good manners." Or something to that effect. My own need to work on those very skills about to be tested. I think the universe has a sense of humor and likes to put pompous would be Buddhas in their place;-)

Now I was the one bristling and no amount of inner Buddha talk was working. We then found ourselves almost 40 minutes late for a tour that I had really, really wanted to go on due to starting out too late and a lot of traffic. Greg had agreed to visit the sugar plantations with me, though only for my sake and commented 30 minutes into the dive at my white knuckled ire that he wished he'd stayed back at the hotel by the pool. He was then added briefly to my "aggravation hit list" despite the fact I knew he was with me as a favor and had done nothing wrong.

We finally got to the place and they kindly allowed us to just go meet up with the group and pay later and it was a fascinating, wonderful tour, but Greg was bored silly, typing into his blackberry for a good portion. We finally got back to the hotel mid afternoon, took a nap and went for a short walk where we discussed a bit about our business and how it can sometimes add stress to our relationship. Then it was time for dinner and it was nice to see good friends, but I didn't get as involved in the discussion as much as usual, just feeling by now a bit blue.

So then it was midnight and I was feeling quite blue, despite being in this gorgeous place with Greg and two of my closest friends in the world and their spouses less than a mile away (we normally live many states away) and feeling quite lonely.

So what IS all that. I kept asking myself why I couldn't just pull myself out of that bout of blues. Why couldn't I focus on how blessed I was to even be here, to be grateful just to be alive and with people I love in a beautiful place? Today there's only a trace of those thoughts as I'm excited to head off to my three hour garden tour. Is there such a thing as vacation blues??? Input appreciated. Eileen
P.S. It does occur to me that at home I have a huge "support network" in my entire house of happy sayings and posters every where I look - in each room - and also a lot of books about thinking positive. They serve as constant gentle reminders to focus on the good. The only books I brought on the trip were about plant propogation and teaching kids to read - with nary a think well reminder in any place I've been for over 72 hours - maybe that whole idea of marketing to happiness at home is really effective?

Hawaii - Day two.

Another beautiful day here! Hawaii is beautiful beyond words. Greg and I visited some historic sites today and had a lovely dinner with friends. At night, they light tiki torches and it's enchanted. Tomorrow is a 3 and a half hour garden tour, which no one but me thought was the cat's meow, so I go alone;-). Wishing you all a happy week ahead. Eileen

Hello from Hawaii

Hello from Hawaii! This is our first trip and I've never seen a place so beautiful!!! It took 19 hours from start to layovers to finish to get here, but worth every hour. The photos were from our balcony and from dinner last night - looking right out at the ocean. Wonderful!!!!!!

Day 230 - Nightly Roundup

Now may every living thing,
young or old, weak or strong,
living near or far, known or unknown,
living, departed or yet unborn,
may every living thing be full of bliss.
Buddha c. 653-483 BC

Go forth into the busy world and love it. Interest yourself in life, mingle kindly with its joys and sorrows, try what you can do for others rather than what you can make them do for you, and you will know what it is to have friends. Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1805-1882
Kai and I hung out today waiting for Kirk to get done with school so we could go to Iowa for their spring break at the farm. Kai did some serious "Pampers Art" and had a good time "helping" with the laundry by making the basket in to his own personal boat. Tomorrow morning we head to Hawaii - hurrah!!! Can't wait to see my friends, spend a lot of time with Greg, and study the plants, birds, and flowers.

Marriage - check
Parenting - Kai and I had some quality time today and Kirk and I enjoyed listening to several tape stories on the drive to Iowa - Kai fell asleep. I've become a huge fan of the books on tape as they have wonderful readers, encourage a lot of thinking (we listened to one on the solar system) and improve vocabulary - all while the mini-van is eating up miles on the road;-).
Business - Nada
Book - Nada
Health - Will do cardio tonight.
Gardening - When I got back, it was still light out so I spent about an hour wheeling leaves and sticks and generally tidying up. I loved seeing the various flowers starting to pop up. Likely when we return there will be daffodils blooming.
Spirit - Really realized how blessed I was to have such wonderful inlaws, who are crazy about our kids and always so happy to have them stay. I have no doubt Greg is such a great guy because his mom and dad are truly wonderful. Also listened to a good tape on the drive back about integrity.
FI - Packed a brown bag supper that I ate on the drive back - saving about $6.50 at Subway, my usual dinner when I make that drive.
House - Still tidying up. We get back Easter morning, on a red eye flight and both sides of our family arrive at 1 p.m. for Easter lunch - wish us well;-).
Bus. Vocab - nada