Wednesday morning was the worst I can recall in history, since waking up at 14 years old to find that my father had passed away during the night. Sounds dramatic right?! It was…….for a while, but thankfully, I’ve gained a new perspective-a reality check of sorts.

Before I’d even had time to fix breakfast, K comes rushing up to me with a handful of hair, eyes wide with fear and tears, and voice shaky and on the verge of a major melt down. “M’s cut her hair off!” she wailed, “Come see!”

I sprang up and followed her into the playroom where I was utterly stunned by what filled my eyes. There were piles upon piles of hair………..this was one of several.

My knees went weak and I think I may have blacked out, because I don’t recall exactly what I said or did immediately.

By the time I had at least some of my wits about me, I gathered a Ziplock baggie full of hair and realized that all 3 of us were crying-hysterically. (Among many other irrational fears and aversions of mine, bad haircuts rank REALLY close to number one-I blame it on scarring as a child!)

When I found the guilty party, she was hiding and bawling her little eyes out. I don’t think I was much help as I nearly hyperventilated over the sight of her self-inflicted mullet :o(

I called DH, but he couldn’t understand what was going on between the sobs, so MIL was promptly called and came to the rescue.

She kept K, while I rushed M to the beauty shop! 

As my friend tried the best she could to salvage what hair was left, M sat, much calmer than before, but with her lip poked WAY out in disgust. When questioned about her frustrations, she said, “Well, my hair didn’t even turn pink! Or at LEAST blonde!” 

I was puzzled, but too curious not to push further. I tried explaining, “Well honey, our hair doesn’t change color just because we cut it.”

“But Rapunzel’s does!” was her very serious reply. 

*head slap* On the ride home we had a long discussion about real and fantasy (which I honestly thought we had down by now), and with a broken hearted mama and sissy, the world turned on.

M was quite proud of herself, while K and I were pitifully stunned and not pleased. (Not one of my proudest parenting moments to say the least.)

2 other major family dramas occurred over Wednesday and Thursday, so by the time it was Friday, I could hardly wait to get out the door to attend the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure!

Friday morning my “team mates” bailed on me. (Losers! LOL, I kid) That was pretty much the straw that broke this camel’s back.

DH and MIL insisted I go anyway, just to unwind and try to put myself back together. It was a heavenly appointment, of that I’m now sure!

I cried most of the 2 ½ hour drive, over just everything that was seemingly going wrong. Sometimes, a long cry is just soul cleansing for me. *shrugs* I don’t cry often, so when I DO, I usually go overboard!

After my night alone in a posh hotel, complete with room service, and a way too long steamy hot shower, I finally felt some peace.

Then, this morning, I woke up before my alarm and got myself ready for the race.

Almost as suddenly as the cool morning air hit my face, so did the conviction and the voice of the Lord reminding me to not sweat the small stuff.

Everywhere I looked, for as far as I could see-literally-were women gathering together, rallying around, in honor of, and in memory of loved ones, friends, and family that were and/or are battling breast cancer! There were women, of all ages, proudly displaying their BALD heads, and I felt like pond scum.

Here I was, crying like a crazy person over an untimely hair CUT, and they were fighting for their lives and not even phased by the beautiful baldness! *hangs head*

Perspective. Loud and clear!

Jogging those 3 miles were better than good church to me! I fought tears, and lost to a few, during my run, but my soul was revived. My eyes were opened. And I am thankful!

Kids will be kids! Things will happen, and just because they don’t “go our way” or “fit our schedule” doesn’t mean it’s the end of our world. That’s the perfect time to look around and instead of focusing on what’s going wrong-we should look around to see what’s going right!

My family is healthy and happy and I’m regretful for spending so much time stressing about the “little stuff”! After all, is this NOT precious?!

Although I’m honestly still mourning the hair cut deep down, this has taught me a valuable lesson!

What lesson(s) have your little ones taught you lately?

Saturday morning, bright and early, my girlfriend and I headed out for our first Color Run! We were overflowing with crazy excited anticipation as we had no clue what to expect! But following the rules, we were donned in white tees, running pants, brightly colored knee high socks, we rainbow painted our nails, and of course, we rocked the white “Color Runner” sweat band.

As we came within blocks of the starting line, we were overwhelmed by the herds of white clad Color Runners all heading the same direction we were. Most were dressed like us, but plenty were looking fly in crazy get ups like clown wigs, tutus, capes, and even whole body leotards! LMBO, yes, apparently ANYTHING goes ;)

Over the blaring upbeat music, you could feel the excitement in the air as we all waited for our turn to begin the run. Runners were released in waves to keep congestion to a minimum, and we were in wave 32!

When it was finally our turn, we took off with high hopes of finding the first color station quickly! We did! It was yellow! 

Then came orange……..

And lastly, blue…………..

When we realized we were already back at the finish line, we were a little sad-wishing it had taken a little longer! But the after party was banging, so we didn’t stay sad long ;)

We had a blast and are looking forward to doing it again next year-just hopefully with a bigger crew!

When my kiddos saw me covered in color from head to toe M cried and wouldn’t come to me and K just wouldn’t let me kiss her because she “didn’t want rainbow on her face”. 

I’m sure that when they get a little older they would LOVE to participate in the Color Run and it would make me super happy to have such a healthy family hobby!

If the Color Run comes to your area, I highly recommend giving it a go! I’m sure you won’t be sorry! In fact, I'm certain you'll be jumping for joy too :o)

Okay, in all honesty, this has to be the closest thing there is to “good for you chocolate cake”! I kept hearing rumors of such thing, but figured it was as likely as finding Sasquatch :o/ But, much to my surprise (and delight), such a thing exists, and it’s so simple it’s scary!

I pinned the recipe on my “Schweet” board on Pinterest and decided to give it a whirl. Dr. Oz supposedly showed the recipe on his show, and I guess I believe just about anything he says. (Yes, I’m way too trusting.) But, nevertheless, I tried it, and was pleasantly surprised with the results!

Ingredients for “Good for You Cake”:

Boxed cake mix of your choice (I used Devil’s Food Chocolate)

1 Cup of Plain Greek Yogurt

1 Cup Water

Instructions:

Mix the ingredients well and follow baking time on the cake box!

While I was mixing the batter up I was a little alarmed by the thickness of it and thought several times that this would never work. The consistency was mousse like, very thick and rich. I’m a batter eater, so of course I HAD to taste it…….it was heaven on a spoon! Just like a chocolate mousse! My girls and I ate too much of it before it even made it to the oven and I didn’t have to worry about us falling ill with salmonella from raw eggs because there are none!

I watched hesitantly as it baked because after 30 years on this planet I’ve learned that when things seem too good to be true, they usually are. I figured it would rise, would be hard or dry, or heck, with my luck-blow up or something! LOL, but none of those things happened!

When the oven timer beeped, I took it out and was truly amazed at how wonderful this cake was! Moist, fluffy, and just YUMMY!

My mom is anti health food (don’t tell her I told you so!) so I immediately called her over to taste my new cupcake recipe! I fibbed a little and said they were “homemade” to make sure she would try them and guess what?! She loved it and couldn’t believe it when I told her what all WASN’T in it!

No butter, no eggs, no oil! Just cake mix, yogurt, and water! 100% yummy and I can safely say that I will no longer bother fattening up cake; I’ll be sticking to Dr. Oz’s recipe!

My kids, my mom, and I give this recipe 8 thumbs up!

Let me know how you like it after you’ve tried it!

After I posted the pictures yesterday of my big 3 year old girls in the cotton field, I got to feeling nostalgic and decided to look back through the previous years of cotton pics. Wow! I’m teary seeing how much they’ve grown and changed!

2009

We are southern through and through and we love everything about it! From sweet tea, “yes ma’am”, and running around barefoot, there isn’t a single thing about the south that we don’t love and take full advantage of.

But, perhaps one of my favorite things of all is the farming history of our family. My husband is a third generation farmer and has the pleasure of doing so with his brother and father.

One of the most notorious crops of southern farmers is probably cotton, aka “White Gold”. It’s not only our livelihood, but it’s our passion too! Cotton clothes us in all seasons, protects our boo-boos (think gauze, wraps, and such), feeds us (yes, cotton seed oil is very popular worldwide!), and so much more!

It’s a combination of all the wonderful uses, along with the stunning beauty of the plant itself that makes taking family portraits in cotton fields such a special tradition! And this weekend, I had a great time taking the girls’ annual cotton field pictures!

Enjoy!

With an amazing family vacation creeping upon us more quickly than I anticipated (doesn’t everything?) I have come up with a plan to lose a few pounds and tone up what I’ve got before setting sail on our Disney Cruise in January. I’m calling it my “Ship Shape” plan! Pretty clever huh?! *insert eye roll and LOL*

With this plan I’m hoping to lose about 10 pounds, and as I said before, simply do some toning. Nothing major, no entire body over haul, just a few things here and there to make me actually WANT to wear a bathing suit.

I know myself well enough to know that I am not willing to go without food, eat things I don’t enjoy, nor deprive myself completely of my favorites. I have two 3 year olds, so I do try to keep relatively healthy food items on hand and limit our splurges in hopes of teaching them life-long good habits. (They know nothing about my secret stash of Dove dark chocolates or my late night cookie baking –when they start scrubbing toilets and picking up after ME, then maybe I’ll share, but not until!)

I’m an exerciser. After 30 years of living with me, I know that the only way to see changes in my body is to work at it, literally. I am not capable of starving myself skinny, and quite frankly, I’d rather be firm and strong than “skinny”. Fad diets, I’ve tried them all, and again, because I’m not willing to majorly alter my eating habits for extended periods of time, they’re a complete waste of my time.

So-without further adieu-here is my “Ship Shape” plan!

*Increase water intake.

*Be conscious of portion sizes, stop eating when I’m full, and don’t eat when I’m not hungry. And, log calories and exercise in My Fitness Pal app.

*EXERCISE! This part is actually the most structured because it’s what works for me.

*Run with a friend for a minimum of 30 minutes Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

*Do an at least mid-length Zumba Rush class on Xbox 360 when I find myself looking for things to do-at least a couple times a week.

*Actually USE the exercise plans I have pinned on my “Working It Out” board on Pinterest. (To make this more likely, I’ve printed off several workouts that target what I consider my “problem areas”.)

*Dry brush cellulite riddled areas (TMI, but I believe in keeping it real :oP), and follow up with a cellulite cream.

Okay, so my plan is nothing stellar, but it’s a plan!

Do you have any small change tips that make a big impact? If so, I’d love to hear them!