Updates

Check Out The Following Pages for today August 29, 2012

Recipes

Money Saving Ideas

Thoughts On Back To School

Well for most kids school has been back in session for a short time now.  My son has just completed his first week of 4th grade.  It's been a fairly easy transition getting "back in the swing of things" from the lazy summer days to getting back to business of schoolwork.  It is wonderful to watch a child grow isn't it?  It takes me back to a time when life was simpler for myself and I had to "worry" about was getting my homework done and what my friends and I were going to do.  As a single mom raising a child in today's world, I can only hope that I am giving him all he needs to learn and grow and become self-sufficient and stand on his own two feet when it's time to fly the nest.  I hope that all children (and their families) are adjusting well to the back-to-school routine and are embracing every opportunity to learn and grow. 

Back To School

It's hard to believe that another summer is drawing to a close and with that so starts another year of school.  For my son it will be 4th grade.  No matter what the grade or age for that matter, the starting of school marks the beginning of a new adventure, a clean slate, starting fresh.  What a truly exciting time.  The possibilities are endless.  Some kids can't wait to get back to school to see their friends, learn something new or are just ready for a change and get back to a routine.  Others are scared and uncertain, new school, new teacher, new friends, new course of study.  Whatever the feeling each child goes through the adjustment of going back to school.  I hope it will be a fun and enjoyable time for the children where happy memories are made.  I came across a website Back To School which shares a wealth of good information about going back to school for not only kids but also for parents and teens.  If home schooling is a consideration this year, I thought I'd suggest the Home Schooling Guidebook which offers a lot of information for parents in helping to make the right decision if home schooling is right for you and your child or children.  For the youngest of children who are getting ready for pre-school or will soon be entering pre-school, I located the following tools to help your child prepare.  Good study habits, eating right, plenty of rest and relaxation as well as goal setting are some key factors to making the school year a success!

Alone --- Why Am I Alone? Part 2 - Things Really Are Not That Bad

I wrote last night about my feelings and the constant question that runs through my mind, Why Am I Alone? and after hearing this 12-year-old girl's inspirational story and heroic battle with cancer, suddenly my "woes" don't seem so bad.  As I've written in a previous post, we all have our "crosses to bear" each and every one of us and how we "bear" them makes all the difference in the world.  This little girl, who is not much older than my son, is fighting for her life and truly living her life to the fullest and taking the hand that she has been dealt in stride and using it to do good and help and inspire others.  It makes me reflect and thank my lucky stars instead of focusing on Why Am I Alone? I should be thanking God and rejoicing that my son does not have cancer and neither do I.  We can't always have it so bad that we can't have it worse is something my mom has always said to me.  Well, listening to this little girl's amazing story has inspired me to focus on what I do have and not what I don't.  If you are like me and have days that bring you down, take a look at this and hopefully things won't seem so bad in your world anymore either.

Alone --- Why Am I Alone?

I share with you today that I am struggling with the question I seem to find myself unfortunately asking way more than I ever imagined. After my ex-husband of 10 years had an affair and left me and my son, it took a long, long time for me to get into the mode of dating. Once I finally did, I found myself in a string of relationships that ended with the man leaving me every time. The first said he was going to marry me, the relationship was wonderful and lasted 4 months and ended with his words of "I'm just not feelin' it" and he married someone else immediately following. It took me a year to recover from that heartbreak and allow myself to date again. Not only did it affect me, it affected my son. A year later, I entered into a relationship with someone who told my son, "I'll always be here for you" and 6 months later, he was gone. As recently as last fall, I entered into another relationship with someone I have known for over 25 years. Did that one last? No. He's gone. I have no idea where he is. I look at my son and I worry about the example these guys are giving. I don't want him to grow up thinking that that is what guys do, they leave so I have once again been forced to look at myself and ask the question, Why Am I Alone? I'm a good woman who cares for others. I go to church, I pray, I believe in God. I am kind, I help others, I've never been unfaithful. When I love someone I pour my heart and soul into the relationship and give 110%. I don't quit at the first sign of trouble and keep trying and learning and growing. I look at my ex-husband and the fact that he is re-married and ask the same question Why Am I Alone? when he is the one who cheated, had an affair and broke up our family. I'm not sure that this is a question that anyone can answer only God knows but it doesn't stop the hurt and pain that I live with daily. I share this extremely personal story because if there is anyone out there who feels like me, I want them to know they are not alone because I feel that way too. I was raised by parents who have been married for 47 years to each other and only one time. We don't see that in this world today and so when I look at my parent's relationship which is happy by the way, I can't help but wonder why was I never able to find that At my age now, I will never see 47 years of marriage I'm simply too old.

I was surfing the internet this evening in between tears, and came across this ebook which is oddly enough titled the question I keep finding myself asking Why Am I Alone?

Greetings

I hope everyone is having a good weekend and a great relaxing Sunday spending time doing the things you enjoy.  My son and I went to church and spent the day relaxing on the couch watching a fun movie DreamWorks' Megamind.  I so enjoy spending time with my son playing, watching a movie, reading a book or going out on an adventure. 

Please share your family time.  I'm interested to hear how others spend their time with their children.

I am determined to be cheerful and happy
in whatever situation I may find myself.
For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness
is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.
- Martha Washington

I added a new page today, Recipes.

The recipes that I share on this page are my late-grandmother's recipes that she shared with me in 2002. I have not opened this recipe book until today which is just a few months after her passing. I hope that you will find these recipes delicious and easy to make. As I hope to find for myself as I start making them for myself and my son. Smacznego! (this is Bon appetite in the Polish language). My grandmother was Polish. Her parents came from Poland to the United States in approximately 1912.

I also updated my Helpful Hints and Money Saving Ideas pages as well.  Be sure to check all my pages regularly as I'm always updating.

Thank you for taking the time to read my posts.  By sharing my life with you, I hope that I am able to help in some small way.






The Penny Stock Egghead

Children Learn What They Live

By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

My thoughts on this as I read and absorb what the author has written is that, with the pressures and stresses of life in general and then raising a child alone and bearing the burden of being both parents, it's hard at times to be all what our children need, but these words ring true.  They are watching us.  We are shaping them. 

Some Days Are Harder Than Others

Some days I ask myself why are things so hard?  Why can't I find a good man who will stay with me, remain faithful and committed to me and love me until death do us part?  Why can't I get out of debt?  Why am I raising a child alone?  Why was my ex-husband unfaithful?  How could he just up and leave my son and me?  Why?  Why?  Why?  The only answer I can come up with is that mine is not to question why and that this is my lot in life.  Everyone has something to deal with in their life and that this is mine and I just have to "pick up my cross" and carry it just as Jesus did.  It's the only way into to Heaven.  To accept without question and have faith that God is with me every step of the way and that He feels my pain and he feels my joy when I do experience it.  He knows the end result of the plan He layed out for me and so as hard as it is at times, I need to just keep swimming as Dory told Nemo's dad in Finding Nemo.  I know it might sound a little silly using those words but actually when I do, it kind of makes me smile a little and realize that when life gets me down, I need to just keep swimming and then when I focus on those words things don't for, sometimes only a brief second, seem so bad.

Anyone have any thoughts to share of their own?

Try

Unless you try to do something
beyond what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson