checking out these parts

Lately, I've been blog stalking people but not tending to my own blog. I've decided this morning to update our happenings. There will be no pictures because I'm nowhere near a camera and my butt is stuck to the cushion of the couch. A few more hours and the imprint will be permanent. Yup, I'm that awesome.

Okay, I made a quilt for Christmas. Not for me but for someone else who hasn't gotten it yet because I haven't sent it. Today, I'll get that sent and then Kjel's mom will have something wonderful to wrap up in if it ever snows and gets cold in her town. I'll post pics later but there has to be some kind of surprise for Kjel's mom.

My boys have had a great Christmas. The older boys got air soft guns that I swore we'd never own they love! They have eye protection, no worries. Also, Isaak was not given one so the world is still safe. I've made a rule that you have to be 12 to own one. There is the loophole that you can shoot one before you're 12. We promise to keep everyone safe from the likes of the Beast.

Nic and Isaak got RC trucks. They of course love their trucks. No snow here yet so we've even had some time driving them outside. It's been fun. Some time this week I want to set up an obstacle course in the basement. Can you imagine how much fun that would be?

Matthias got a Tow Mater truck you shake and then it makes sounds and drives. He is in heaven. I have found him many times talking to Mater. They're best buds. I love watching him lost in imagination.

Kjel got a camera which he promptly was assigned to take pics of Christmas morning and well, we should have given him more time to learn the camera because well... we did get a couple pics.

I got some perfume that Kjel picked out for me. I like it. I haven't used perfume for years because I'm usually allergic. This scent initially gave me some nose trouble but my body is adjusting and I love that my husband hand picked something for me.

I posted early in the month about a gift I was giving myself. It was some ridiculous goal of losing some weight. How trivial. I've had a couple of months of really struggling with my body image. I recognize that I have a skewed view of how I look and that I should really just be happy. Let me give you some background though. I grew up dancing. My body was strong and capable and usually thin. I was never a rail thin dancer because my body is not capable of that. I'm just not built that way. I spent many years wondering why I could not look like a real dancer. Of course, I was a size 4 and was again skewed in my thinking of what I looked like. Dance is not the enemy though. I must say there is SO much I learned from my years dancing that the little bit of time I spent hating my body is trivial. I can now look back and recognize that my body was beautiful and very capable.
Body image is a struggle though partly because of what the world around me has shown in their actions. I'm not talking about Hollywood. They can do what they want to do. Whatever...
It's much more personal than that. I too play a part in this nasty enemy. I have exmples of beautiful people around me that have 10, 20, maybe even 30 pounds to loose. I honestly don't know what their goals are but every time I tell them their beautiful they immediately tell me I'm crazy and they have 10, 15, 50 pounds to loose before they're beautiful. Like I stated, I'm guilty of this too. I've picked up on what has been modeled. IT NEEDS TO STOP NOW! This is only hurting everyone. Let's pledge for the New Year to be beautiful in our skin. This is not going to be easy for me. This needs to happen though because the future generation needs better examples of beautiful women.  nuff said... so much more i'm thinking about this subject but nothing more to say right now.