Follow Your Heart, Be Your Own Hero, Say What's On Your Mind, And Who Cares What Anyone Else Thinks?

I am absolutely loving the recent outpouring of feel good empowering be yourself and your own person songs on the radio lately.  Everytime I hear one of these songs on the radio in my car I can't help but crank up the volume and sing along with a big smile on my face.  It feels good to start hearing some music that leaves you feeling a great self esteem boost!  I wanted to share few of these songs with my readers and why I love the messages that they send.

Kacey Musgraves - "Follow Your Arrow"

Message: Follow your arrow!  Do what you want to and forget what anyone else does or thinks!

Why I love it: I love this song because Kacey picks some of the most prevalent stereotypes in our society and basically says that no matter what you do, someone's not going to like it so you might as well do what you want and be happy.  Another way of saying you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.  I love the line "just 'cause you can't beat 'em don't mean you should join 'em."  It's easier said than done but we should really take Kacey's advice to heart.  Follow your heart (your arrow) and do what makes you happy regardless of what anyone else thinks or says about it.  After all, "you only live once!"

Katy Perry - "Roar"

Message: You are strong and you can do anything you put your mind to, no one can hold you down unless you let them!

Why I love it: I love this song because it's all about being your own hero and believing in yourself!  You can do anything you put your mind to and if you really want something no one can stop you from achieving it!  Katy says "I went from zero to my own hero, you held me down but I got up...get ready 'cause I've had enough!"   She also talks about what life was like before she starting believing in herself.  She says "I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything."  Her whole life changed with her new outlook on life when she became empowered and started believing in and relying on herself.  We can be our own best advocate but we can also be our own worst enemy and worst critic.  Let's show the world what we can do by giving ourselves some credit and believing that we can achieve our dreams.  If we do, we will be unstoppable!


Sara Bareilles - "Brave"

Message: Say what's on your mind and don't let anyone silence your voice or intimidate you into being someone you are not!  Be brave and "let the words fall out!"

Why I love it: In our world it is so hard sometimes for us to say what's on our mind and to express ourselves - be honest and open.  Doing so exposes us to criticism from others but we can't change the world unless we as, Sara says, "say what (we) want to say and let the words fall out."  She says "your history of silence won't do you any good... let your words be anything but empty, why don't you tell them the truth?"  She challenges us to be brave and to share ourselves with the world regardless of what anyone thinks.  She acknowledges that "everyone's been there, everyone's been starred down by the enemy, fallin' for the fear and words disappearin', fall down to the mighty" but she says "don't run, stop holdin'  your tongue!"  Translation - We all know what it feels like to be intimidated into silence but stand up for yourself - be brave and speak up.  I also love this video in particular which encompases the idea of "dance like no ones watching."  At the end some guys ask if one of the dancers is on drugs - why do people jump to this response when someone is spontaneous or just being themselves?


Sara Bareilles - "King of Anything"

Message: How dare you tell me what I should do or who I should be?  I don't care if you disagree with me - you are not the boss of me!

Why I love it: Sara tells it how it is and really sticks it to the jerk who tired to tell her who she should be!  She says all her life she has tried to please everyone and now it's time for her to do her own thing regardless of what anyone else thinks because she is her own person.  We should all take a page from this playbook :)


I hope that you enjoy these songs as much as I do and that they give a great self esteem boost to your day today!  I love you all and I hope that you can find the courage to be who you are and to change our world for the better one voice at a time.

Appreciate Your Blessings

During a deployment, every army wife fears the day when a black car pulls up to the house delivering two uniformed soldiers to your doorstep to inform you that our deepest darkest fear has come true - that your husband has been injured or worse killed in action.

For those who are not military spouses it is sometimes easy to pretend that we are not still fighting a war and that we are not losing good men every day.  The news on TV can seem a distant crisis unconnected to their lives and the soldiers who make the ultimate sacrifice are just names and faces on the 5:00 news.  I admit, when I was in high school, I was one of these blissfully ignorant people.  I understood that there was a war going on but I didn't feel connected or affected by it much save for the events of 9/11.  When I went to college, my eyes were opened when I met and made friends with people who were in the ROTC programs and I began to volunteer with a military outreach group.  Now, married to a soldier, those who act like my former self frustrate me and I have to remind myself that perhaps they don't realize how blissfully ignorant they really are.

The reality is that the faces of the soldiers on the 5:00 news are not just names and faces.  They are the faces of husbands, fathers, mothers, wives, daughters, and sons.  Loved ones of someone who will miss them forever.

Two weeks ago, a friend of mine had her worst nightmare come true.  Her husband was killed in Afghanistan leaving her with a future of shattered dreams and a 20 month old son to raise on her own.  My heart is broken for her and I have been praying daily and nightly for her entire family.  Although I only met this soldier once, because he was deployed for the majority of the time that my friend and I were living in the same state, I have been deeply affected by his passing.  I could easily have been the one standing in this friends' shoes.

For the past two weeks, this army wife and her husband have never been far from my thoughts.  I feel frustrated that there really isn't much I can do to "make things better."  I have always hated to see friends in pain and have always tried to do whatever I can to help them to "fix" whatever is wrong but there's no fixing this.  Nothing that I or anyone else can say or do will ever be enough to fill the void in this young woman's life.  I feel helpless and I hate it.

Over the past two weeks I have felt the need to tell everyone and anyone who will listen to me about this soldier and his ultimate sacrifice.  I have always felt that taking about someone who has passed is one of the best ways to remember them and to keep them from being forgotten. I know he isn't the only soldier who has been lost and I get an uneasy feeling every time a soldier's face is shown on the news but this one hit closer to home than most.  Most of those who I have shared the story with are sympathetic but there have been a few whose responses have been akin to "well they knew what the risks were..." This response for lack of a better word pisses me off.  I mean of course we know what the risks are but if no one was willing to take them where would our country be?  Just because we know the risks doesn't mean we are prepared to accept them.  Does knowing "the risk" mean that somehow it's OK that this young woman is now raising a child alone who will probably only remember bits and pieces of his father?  I don't think so.

If you are reading this, I ask you to do two things.  1) Please say a prayer for my friend and her family and the families of all fallen soldiers tonight - don't forget them or let their sacrifices be in vain and 2) thank God for your own loved ones and don't take them for granted.

We are all guilty at some point of being annoyed with our spouses myself included.  We get mad because of something trivial and we complain to our girlfriends about stuff that our husbands did or didn't do but I challenge you to consider this - how would you feel if you suddenly didn't have him anymore?  Would that thing you were mad about matter anymore?  I'm not saying we can't ever be mad.  Having arguments sometimes is normal.  Just remember that in the end, we are lucky to have our loved ones safe and out of harms way.  Never take for granted what you have because there are those who would give anything for one more day with those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

May my friend's husband rest in peace and may his family find peace and love in the memories they shared.

Rocking Chair Cushions

I thought I would share one of my recent craft projects.  Before anyone asks no, we are not expecting but I am having fun building a nursery for the future piece by piece.  Hubby and I have been attending some auctions and yard sales just looking for cool stuff at great prices and after one of the auctions I got the idea in my head that we needed a rocking chair for my imaginary nursery. lol.  After checking craigslist for weeks for a chair that looked nice and yet didn't need much work, I found one that I thought was really cute.  It has little yellow ducks on the back which is totally nursery-esk and not very adult but hey we will have a baby eventually.  I also liked the fact that the ducks are very gender-neutral.

After buying the chair I decided to attempt to make my own cushions for it.  Who knew that rocking chair cushions can cost hundreds of dollars?!  I knew I could make some for cheaper than the retail prices but I wasn't entirely confident on how sophisticated the result would look.  I spent hours researching do-it-yourself tutorials on chair cushions and looking at examples for sale to get ideas on what I wanted mine to look like.  I decided to keep things simple but even so there were a few challenges that I didn't expect.

The first challenge that I encountered with this project was choosing the fabric.  I wanted to pick something gender neutral since I have no idea what gender future baby X will be and I had a feeling I wasn't going to want to repeat this process anytime soon unless I had to.  In order to attempt to include Hubby in my "project"  I asked him to help me to choose a fabric.  I explained to him that I wanted to choose something simple (so that it would not take away from the hand painted ducks) and that I wanted something gender neutral.  Once at the store (and I dragged the poor man to two different stores) Hubby kept suggesting bright busy patterns.  The fabrics were nice but I was worried that they would take the eye away from the ducks.  I struggled to find something that fit the idea that I had in my head.  At first I gravitated towards black or cream based fabrics with subtle patterns but Hubby complained that they were "boring."  He likes color and sometimes gets frustrated with my gravitation towards the basics.  After striking out badly at the first store I went home and did some research on the computer.  The trip to the second store went better.  I still wanted something with a subtle pattern but this time I went for the "nursery fabrics" which had pastel colored patterns.  I found a few that I thought would work and I let Hubby help me pick.  We settled on a fabric with a  green zig-zag pattern.

Challenge two struck when I attempted to cut the fabric.  Silly me assumed that the lines would be printed straight on the fabric and that I could use them as a cutting guide to get my cuts straight... HAHAHA The fabric gods decided to laugh at me.  The lines in the middle of the fabric were straight but as they progressed up and down the fabric they became skewed.  Not only did this pose a challenge to cutting but I didn't want them to look obviously skewed on the final product of my cushions. Call it an obsession with straight lines stemming back to my childhood. (I can still hear my mother lecturing me about how to make the bed so that the stripes in the sheet made straight lines!)

The third challenge was cutting my foam for the back cushion to compliment the curve of the chair back so that they ducks wouldn't be covered up.

Overall, I think my efforts paid off and they cushions came out pretty well.  They may not be perfect but hey I find that even store bought stuff isn't even perfect these days.  Here's my final result!

Front View

Back View

Close Up of Ducks and Fabric Pattern

Updates - Since I've been absent for awhile....

I know that I don't have many readers but.... for those who actually do check my blog here... I apologize for my lack of posts in the last few  months.  I really don't have a great excuse for my absence other than the fact that I just haven't felt like writing and I haven't felt like I've had anything of note to write about.

I'm working as a substitute teacher again this year after applying to a ridiculous number of schools this summer and yet still not being able to secure a teaching position.  I even applied as a school secretary at a few different schools!  I had a total of two interviews despite the enormous number of schools that I applied to- one for a one year teaching position at the school that I have poured a ton of work into long term subbing and daily subbing and one for a secretarial position at a middle school five minutes down the street from where we live.  Needless to say - I did not get either job even though I made it to the second round of interviews.  Talk about frustrating but I guess it's just more water under the bridge.  This is my 6th year as a "professional" sub.  

Hubby is still enjoying his job but his contract was re-bid which has resulted in a significant pay cut for us - not something either of us were happy about.  His coworkers seem to be rushing to "get out of Dodge."  I am counting our blessings though that he still HAS a job because I have no desire to go back to where we were last year at this time.

I can't believe it's been almost a year since we have lived here and almost a year and half since Hubby ETSed.  In some ways the time has flown and in others it has dragged.  I feel like we are just now finally beginning to feel settled here.  We had started to look at buying a house this summer but in light of the above developments we have put that on hold for now.  

Sometimes I feel like we are in a holding pattern- waiting to be able to move on to the next stage of our lives? IE: When will I finally get a teaching job if ever? Is it time to start a family? When will we buy a house? ect.  It's not that I'm in a hurry for things to change or to move on from where we are.  I think this feeling of of being "stuck" is mostly related to my job frustration but I am trying to stay positive.  After all, everything happens for a reason and if you look at our history, I have actually been blessed not to have a job as it has given us a lot more flexibility.  I can't help but wonder what our future holds though.  Where will we be in 5 years?  Will we have 2.5 children a house and a dog?  Who knows.  In the meantime sometimes it's fun to speculate.