Journaling Inspiration

Where do you find inspiration for your journaling? I tend to find mine all over the place. You never really know what is going to catch my attention. Here are some places where I have found interesting topics to journal about:

• Newspapers / Magazines
• Television
• Conversations with Friends & Family
• Drama of people I know
• Overheard snippets of conversation when you're out in public
• Blogs
• Books
• Family stories
• Photos
• Emails

What inspires you? Leave me a comment letting me know where you find your inspiration. Is there a topic you would like to know more about?

Thankful Thursday

For next week's Thankful Thursday I plan on doing something a little different. Starting tonight I want to take a few minutes every night to write down 5 things I am thankful for that day. I would like for it to be something specific that relates to that particular day. Then, on Thursday morning I will post all of my thankful lists for the week. I strive to see the good in every day and I think that changing this exercise around like this will help me with that.

Here is my list of things that I am thankful for this week:

1. That we saw the nail in my tire and got it fixed before it left me and my daughter on the side of the road with a flat tire.
2. Having time to cuddle with my daughter in the mornings before I have to get ready for work.
3. My blog. I love being able to share things with whoever wants to read them.
4. The rebate checks I got in the mail this week. I love being able to buy stuff we can use and get my money back too.
5. My daughter feeding herself. It may be messy, but it allows me to eat at least some of my food before it gets cold.
6. Finally getting laundry put away. We had 5 baskets of clean laundry that needed to be put away. This week I finally got to that. I had actually forgotten just how crammed my closet is when all the clothes are away. I think it's time to go through them and donate some.
7. The cool blinky Halloween t-shirts I won from Coupon Cravings blog giveaway.
8. Dinner out Tuesday night. We used a gift certificate so we were able to eat out cheaply. The food was good and it was nice to not have to cook and clean up.
9. Noticing that the jars of fruit I bought for my daughter were a product of China before I opened them. I was able to return them to the store and get my money back. I'm just not comfortable giving my daughter food from China right now.
10. Halloween pictures of my daughter. This is her first Halloween so I had to get plenty of pictures of her in her costume. I'll try not to go too nuts with the camera Halloween night.
11. Free music from Starbucks. I love finding new artists that I enjoy. It's especially good when you can find them for free.

What are you thankful for this week?

Thursday Thunks

Welcome to this week's edition of Thursday Thunks. To check out other player's answers to these questions, click here.

Would you let your children go Trick or Treating at Michael Jackson's house? No way. I know they have that whole reasonable doubt thing going for them legally, but my daughter's safety is not something I am willing to take a chance on.

Did you eat paste and/or glue as a child? Not that I remember. I did always love the smell of paste though.

Look at the wall to your right, what is on it? A window. On the window sill is a poor jasmine plant that I keep forgetting to water. I really shouldn't be allowed to care for houseplants. It always ends badly.

Do you put butter and/or salt on your popcorn? Butter AND salt. I don't eat much popcorn though because I hate the way all the kernel shells get caught in your teeth. Drives me nuts.

What does your favorite coffee cup look like?

What was your favorite Halloween costume? Right now I'm having a hard time remembering my Halloween costumes. I guess the main one I'm remembering right now is when I was Daphne from Scooby Doo a few years ago. (You can probably guess from that answer and the mug above that I Scooby a wee bit)

Toilet Paper - hard, soft, extra soft? Soft. If it's too soft it just doesn't seem to be as effective and if it's hard well, it's just too hard.

Have you ever rescued/taken in a stray animal? I had a kitten that we found at work. She was with me for about 2 years. After she had kittens and I gave them away, she ran away. About a month ago we came and there was a puppy sitting around outside our house. He didn't have any tags or a collar. He started following me so I picked him up and carried him in to our house (much to the dismay of my husband and 2 dogs, but to the delight of my daughter). It was getting ready to storm and I couldn't just leave him out there. My husband did find his owners and he is back with his family. We do occasionally see him around the neighborhood.

Name 3 things you want your kids to learn before they grow up. (if you don't have kids, feel free to skip this one or add your own twist to the question) 1 - How to save money, 2 - How to be happy with yourself, 3 - How to be content with what you have (avoiding the whole keeping up with the Jones' thing)

Pick one of the Thursday Thunk players and say something about them. So far this week no one has posted a response. I'm scheduling this to post in the wee hours of the morning Thursday. So I will have to come back and edit this to provide an answer to this one.

Edit to Add: Kimber's house sounds like I expect my house to be in a few years.

Wednesday Weirdness

1.) As an adult, do you do anything for Halloween or is it jut another day? We always give out candy. I love seeing what all the kids dress up as every year. This year is also my daughter's first Halloween so I'm excited about that.

2.) Do you ever dress up for Halloween? What will be your costume this year? I dressed up for Halloween for many years, but last year and again this year, no costume.

3.) Have you started Christmas shopping yet? Of course When do you usually begin? I'm on the lookout for good gifts all year long. For me it's just easier that way.

4.) Do you look people in the eye when talking? Usually Does it bother you when people don't make eye contact during conversation? Depends on the situation. If they're driving I'd much rather they look at the road. If they're trying to sell me something then I expect them to look me in the eyes.

5.) What excuse do you usually use when you want to take a day off work for no real reason? With my job you don't need an excuse, you can just say you aren't coming in today.

6.) How often, on average, do you find yourself thinking about sex per day? Depends, most days I don't think about it at all and other days I think about it a lot.

7.) What company makes your favorite brand of shoes? Aerosole What makes them your favorite? They're comfortable and still look good without emptying my wallet.

8.) Do you ever save alcohol bottles once they are empty? No

9.) Do you enjoy musicals? Not particularly, but I don't hate them either.

To check out other responses to these questions, head over to Wednesday Weirdness.

Wordless Wednesday

Both dogs were given a bone in the morning. The other dog ate her's right away. He didn't want to eat his, but he didn't want to let the other dog have it either. So he carried it around with him all day. At bedtime I finally took it away from him because I didn't want them fighting over it during the night.

Family Feud Email Questions

I got this in my email earlier this week and figured I would share my answers here. These could be cute journal prompts. Get some responses from your friends and family and that might even get you writing.

LET'S PLAY FAMILY FEUD!!! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE MY ANSWERS!!!!!!
Forward to your friends and don't forget to send it back to me.
Remember, you can't use the same answer as the person who sent it to you.

1. Name something you use in the shower? Soap
2. Name something a football player wears under his uniform? Pads
3. Name something people hate to find on their windshield? Parking Ticket
4. Name something a man might buy before a date? Dental Floss
5. What is another word for blemish? Zit
6. Something you cook in the microwave? Veggies
7. Name a piece of furniture people need help moving? Sofa
8. Name a reason a younger man might like an older woman? Lots of $$
9. Name something a dog does that embarrasses its owner? Diarrhea on the neighbors sidewalk while they’re watching (yup, one of my dogs has done this to me)
10. Name a kind of test you cannot study for? DNA Test
11. Name something a boy scout gets a badge for? Camping
12. Name a phrase with the word home in it? Home is where the heart is
13. Name a sport where players lose teeth: Hockey
14. Name something a teacher can do to ruin a student's day? Go crazy with the red pen
15. What is a way you can tell someone has been crying? Snotty nose
16. Name a bird you wouldn't want to eat? Pigeon
17. Name something a person wears even if it has a hole in it. T-shirt
18. Name something that gets smaller the more you use it? Bank account

If you post anwers to these questions, please provide a link to them in the comments. You could even answer them in the comments if you like. Have fun!

Friday Meme Prompts

Today I was looking around for a good Friday Meme to participate in. I came across Friday Feast. I love the site, but unfortunately it hasn't been updated since July. Still, there are some great prompts on there if you're looking for some.

The Friday Feast site did lead me to Food For Thought Friday which looks interesting. I think I will try responding to some of her questions later today.

Thursday Thunks

What vegetable would you serve with a plate of fried grasshoppers? Well, I immediately take out all the green veggies because that would be too much green on the plate. Maybe corn. It would have to be something good because I wouldn't be eating the fried grasshoppers, just the veggies.

If you realize your house is on fire while you are using the bathroom, do you wipe or just run for the door? If it's #1, just run for the door (pull your pants up please), #2 I'd wipe, cuz well yuck!

Why is there a light in the fridge but not in the freezer? My freezer does have a light. Not that you can tell with all the food I have stuffed in there. My new dryer has a light too which I think is cool.

When thinking about yourself, what color do you see yourself as? Purple. Yup, I'm weird.

Why are people able to have unprotected sex with someone, but afraid to tell them if they have an STD? Yeah - If you can't trust them enough to tell them you have an STD then you really shouldn't be sleeping with them.

To see other answers to these crazy questions, check out this week's Thursday Thunks.

Wordless Wednesday

My daughter loves our dogs, but the dogs just aren't as fond of her attention.

To see more Wordless Wednesday posts, check out Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes For Mom.

Talk About Tuesday - Food and Exercise Journal

Since my daughter will soon be a year old, I am starting to really work on losing the baby weight. I have managed to avoid the issue up until now because I have been nursing. To help me track my progress I have started keeping a food and exercise journal. I picked a cute small journal with lined pages, but any journal or notebook would do. I have seen books made specifically for recording your food and exercise, but I wanted something that I could customize for myself.

On the first page of the notebook I keep a record of my weights. I weight myself every Monday morning and record the weight here. This way it is very easy to see my progress from week to week. On the last page of the book I have my fee and reward schedule. All of the in between pages are for my daily records.

Each day gets its own page and on it I record the times and descriptions whenever I eat something. It doesn’t matter how small. Even if I only ate 2 cheese curls, it needs to be recorded in the book. I even record my vitamins in here. I also keep records of the exercise I do. This includes walking the dogs, time on the treadmill and so forth. I know a lot of people wouldn’t consider walking the dogs exercise, but I power walk and the dogs enjoy going with me. For my exercise I record the time, duration and a description of what I did. At the very bottom of each page is my total for my rewards and/or fees for the day. This makes it easy for me to total them up at the end of the week for the payout.

The fee and reward schedule is something that I came up with to help motivate myself. I setup dollar amounts for achieving different goals. There are also charges for when I do certain things or don’t reach those goals. For example, I have to pay a fee if I hit the candy dish at work. There is always lots of good candy around my office and it is a weakness for me. If I can go all day without munching on the candy at the office I get a reward. At the end of the week I total up the rewards and fees. The fees are deducted from my reward money. The reward money gets transferred to a special savings account I have and the fees get transferred to my daughter’s savings account. I’m saving up my reward money so that when I reach my goal I can buy something nice for myself. Right now I’m thinking about a new ring, but that could change.

Do you have any tips and tricks that have helped you lose weight? I’m open for suggestions.

Also, check out The Lazy Organizer to see what other people are talking about.

Sunday Scribblings - My Style

My style really isn’t something that I have thought a lot about much lately. I think that as a mom it is all too easy to fall into that trap. I’m lucky in that I have a husband who encourages me to leave our daughter with him and spend some time on myself. Of course when I get that time where I don’t have to worry about her I typically start working on all the other things that need to be done and don’t spend the time on myself. I’m working on improving that, but it is hard to balance everything when you’re a parent.

When my daughter was first born I was happy to get a shower so style certainly didn’t play into my days. I wound up falling into what I would call the “mom style” of low maintenance everything. Now that my daughter is getting a little older I’m working on getting back my personal style. I’ve grown tired of having my makeup and jewelry sitting neglected on the vanity table. I miss dressing nicely and having my makeup done. I’ve come to realize that to be a good mom I have to be happy and take care of me too. It isn’t all about my daughter and her needs.

Now that I’ve started taking the time for me I am a much happier person. It’s not that I was unhappy before, but I wasn’t as happy as I could be. My style is still evolving and my life is definitely work in progress, but I feel like I’m getting there.

What about you, what’s your style? Ro read other responses to this prompt, check out Sunday Scribblings.

Monday Musings

For this week's Monday Musings we are talking about an article on reading found here on NPR.

One statistic in this article really bothers me. That is the 9 books a year being an avid reader. I remember hearing a statistic similar to this a few years ago and it bothered me then too. No one that I know would consider someone that reads 9 books a year an avid reader. Personally, I read at least 50 books a year. My grandmother reads well over 100 a year. And my mother, who will admit that she doesn't read much anymore because of time constraints, still reads more then 9 books a year. Where are they finding these "avid" readers?

As for Ian McEwan's quote:

"When women stop reading, the novel will be dead."

I just don't believe that. If women stopped reading, it would definitely put a hurting on the novel market, but there would still be a market out there. Granted, my husband may only read one novel a year, but I have known men who were what I would consider avid readers. This means that they read at least 40 books a year. For whatever reasons, men in general may not read a lot of novels, but they do read them.

To check out the full post for this Monday Musing and see the other responses, head over to Should Be Reading.

New Journals

This weekend I stopped at the Barnes and Noble in the Power Plant at the Inner Harbor. That was the first time I've been that particular Barnes and Noble and I enjoyed it. They had a pretty nice selection of blank journals so of course I had to browse through them. I wound up buying the two above. I just loved them and my current journal is just about complete. Now I just need to figure out which one I'm going to use first.

Thursday Thunks

What was your favorite toy as a child?
I had a lot of Barbies and clothes for them. I loved creating stories for them and dressing them up in all their cool clothes.

If money was no object, but you could only buy ONE thing, what would you buy your spouse/significant other?
I would buy him a brand new car. His is 7 years old now and while it works just fine I know he would love to have a brand new one.

What about your children?
For my daughter, I would fully fund her college account.

Now, if you only had $10 to buy one thing, what would it be?
I'd buy lunch so I don't have to eat leftovers again.

What's on your refrigerator?
Various magnets, pictures of family and friends, a timer, and a shopping list

What's on top of it?
Baby cereal, a container of spatulas, spoons etc, a cookie jar, 2 coffee mugs and a bunch of dust. I think I need to clean up there.

Go look in it. Whats in there that would gross the rest of us out?
I just cleaned the fridge out Monday so it's pretty safe in there.

Whats your favorite type of potato?
French fries

Do you have an address book?
Yes

Do you write in it or do you just stick return addresses/envelopes in it?
I actually write in it.

Look up. Do you like your ceiling?
I'm not at home right now and the ceiling where I'm at is pretty scary.

For more responses to these questions, check out Thursday Thunks

The Witch's Trinity

The Literate Housewife is having a giveaway (well, three actually) for copies of The Witch's Trinity By Erika Mailman. This looks like a really interesting book and I know I would love to read it. If I don't win I think I'll have to see if the library has a copy.

Musing Monday

Here is this week's Monday Musings question:

Could you narrow down your reading to a favorite genre and author? Why, or why not?

My reading is all over the place. In fact, I usually don't even read just one book at a time. Right now I'm in the middle of reading a romance book, a sci-fi book and a non-fiction book. I would feel like I was stuck in a rut if I had to stick with just one genre or worse yet, just one author. What I'm reading at any particular time is more dependent on the mood I'm in at that time. There are times when you're just in the mood for a fluffy romance novel and there are times when you're more up for the suspense novel. To me, the different genres serve different purposes and I need them all to feel fulfilled as a reader.

What about you? To check out other responses and/or post your own, head over to Should Be Reading

If I Had to Live In a Different Time in History

My post for Sunday Scribblings #132
If I had to live at a different time in history

I am the type of person who loves to read a good historical romance. I particularly like the ones set during the renaissance where you had the lords and ladies and all of the romanticism that goes with it. It would be so much fun to go back to those times and see how people really lived. Yet I really don’t think that I would want to live there. I love my modern conveniences (electric, running water and so forth) way too much to give them up. Hey, I don’t even like to go camping. Do you really think I would survive having to live in a time like that? I also don’t think that a woman as independent and opinionated as myself would go over well in that time. Really, I’m good with the time I live in now.

What about you? Is there another place in time where you would like to live? Check out Sunday Scribblings to see more responses to this prompt.

Freaky Friday - Perfection

Writing Promt From A Creative Journal Freaky Friday #131. Here is a summary of the prompt:

Write as if you are perfection. Try to let perfection speak what is really on its mind about your writing or art. Explore the idea and listen to what perfection would have you do. If you like create a dialogue with perfection. Ask questions. Why aren’t you living up to perfections standards? What does perfection expect of you? Is perfection being reasonable?

I liked this prompt because I do struggle with perfectionism. Not as in I am perfect, but as in I expect everything to be perfect. Since I became a mom I have gotten a little better at letting things not be perfect. It's hard when you're trying to be a great wife and mother and balance that with all of your other responsibilities. Every time I think I'm getting the balance worked out, something happens to throw it all off again. I'm definitely a work in progress.

I plan to explore this topic and follow this prompt in my paper journal. My hope is that it will help me accept that perfectionism is not something that is going to be a part of my life right now. I think that by accepting this I will be able to enjoy my life much more and be a better wife and mother too.

Friday Five

There use to be a meme called Friday Five. When the original author of that meme stopped posting questions, a group of fans started posting their Friday Five on Live Journal. These questions make great journal prompts. To check out the current Friday Five, click here. You can also see the list where memebers have suggested questions for future Friday Fives here.

Check them out. There are pages of questions out there, so you just might find something that inspires you.

That's My Answer

Today I came across the site That's My Answer. They ask questions every day and you can answer along. I think this is a great way to start a journal entry. I was checking out some of the questions and the topics vary so you should be able to find something to get you started writing.

Today I decided to answer this question:

Yesterday I had my furnace repaired — the circuit board needed to be replaced – I also had it tuned up. $512.78 later, I have heat. Needless to say, until this past Sunday the expense was completely unexpected. What was the last expense that took you by surprise?

Here's my answer:
About $1000 for my husband’s car in January. We took it in for brakes and wound up having to have some other stuff taken care of too. It was crazy timing too because I was 5 1/2 weeks in to my unpaid maternity leave. Yikes.

I could go on and on from this point. Tonight I will try to expand on this in my paper journal. Take some time to head over there to check it out and see what questions work for you.

Thankful Thursday

To help remind myself that there are always good things going on in life, I want to start keeping a Thankful Thursday log. On Thursdays I will post a list of at least five things I am thankful for that week.

I am thankful that:
* My daughter is happy and healthy and that she slept through the night last night in her own bed.
* I was able to cook a nice meal for my family last night and we all sat down together to eat it.
* I was finally able to update my coupon box this week
* For the game I won that came in the mail this week
* For my husband doing the dishes last night and giving me a chance to work on my stuff

So what are you thankful for this week? Head over to Grace Alone to see what other people are thankful for this week.

Forbidden

As I crawl closer to the forbidden spot I know that mommy is going to yell at me. So I glance over my shoulder at her. She sees me and gives me "the look." Apparently mommy doesn't realize just how much like her I am. I keep crawling and pull myself up. What is that on the wall with the metal around it. Every time I start poking it with my fingers mommy yells "No!" Doesn't she realize that I just need to explore and discover the world around me. Why does there have to be forbidden places? I don't have the words yet to ask mommy this, but once I do I will ask her. Once I learn to say the word 'why' mommy will be sorry.

This post is for last week's Sunday Scribbling. This is my first time participating, but I have been following along for awhile now. If you get a chance, check out all the other Forbidden postings. If you're really feeling adventurous you could try posting too.