I am Brave and Beautiful

I am Brave and Beautiful - a beauty movement that is sweeping the globe. Colbie Caillat started it with her recent song and video called TRY. My blogging friend Megan of Brassy Apple wanted to push this movement along and invited women from all over to share what they looked like without make up and I joined in!! Colbie's song says, "Take your make up off. Let your hair down... Look into the mirror at yourself, Do you like you? Cause I like you... "

Megan and I have been the team behind this whole project. Our worldwide vision included creating our own video inspired by the song TRY. The talent of Robbins Creative made it possible for us to pull it off. You have to click play and see the beauty and bravery displayed and you might even recognize a few faces in there.

Me along with 101+ other blogging women from different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, ages, shapes and sizes have decided to be Brave and Beautiful! You can join in this movement too by sharing what you look like without makeup on. You don't need a blog either! Just tag your photo with #IamBraveAndBeautiful on Instgram and search the hashtag to see who else has joined in. ALSO, if you tag it with a second hashtag - #ColbieTRY we just might be able to get Colbie Caillat's attention since she was the inspiration behind it all!

Are you brave and beautiful? I am, here I go!

In these two photos you can see a significant difference around my eyes, my wrinkles, smile lines, crows feet whatever you want to call them I have them in one picture and not in the other. I like the natural one better. Yep, I said natural is better. Why? Why am I ok with the wrinkles? Because I don't see them as wrinkles I see them as my WARRIOR lines. These wrinkles are a direct result of every smile and tear shed in my life. They are the result of a life well lived, full of meaning, deepened with every sorrow and extended with every joy. I look forward to being old and wrinkly because it is my outward testament of a great life, a warrior's life. 

I think the only thing we have to "TRY" to do is own who we are. We are who we are because our families, friends, neighbors, strangers and the world needs us to be who we are. We don't have to "...TRY so hard", like Colbie Calliat says, because all we have to do is be ourselves. We each have strengths, talents, weaknesses and failures unique to us in order for us to learn, grow and accomplish our unique purpose here on earth. If we need makeup or no makeup in order to feel like our true self then that is what we need to do. 

There are a lot of people, images and messages in our lives that will try to tear us down. They try to make us believe that we are not valued. We need, no we have to shut those messages out of our lives! In Coblie's song she says, "take your makeup off", to me the word makeup can be literal and it can be whatever or whoever is holding you back from liking you. We need to find and own the value of how we look, what our talents are and what our purpose is. Once we understand these things we will fly with self worth, light and truth and we will change the world one tiny insignificant moment at a time and live a warrior's life.
(Thank you Lindsay Black for taking my natural photo.)

Don't stop here. Get clicking around - its a blog hop! Below are more brave and beautiful women bearing more than their natural beauty. They each have a little bit of their heart to share with you. Some get very personal. Some share stories. For some this was very hard to do yet they gathered their courage and did it anyway. We hope as you click around (and YES pin these different posts!) you will feel the importance of it, the empowering effect it has and that it encourages you in some way.

>>>>>>>Important info! Blog Hops often have glitches the first day. If the link has an ERROR, simply click on the HOME button for each site, or google the blog name next to the link, and you should see their brave and beautiful post there. Links will be updated as soon as possible.<<<<<<<<<<<<

1. BrassyApple 2. Peace from 6 Pieces 3. Is this Really My Life 4. Among the Young 5. Love Me Dani Marie 6. Sweet Charli 7. Kim Orlandini 8. XO, Ashton Tilton 9. She Calls Me Mama Leisha 10. Raising Memories - Canada 11. A Little Tipsy 12. Amy Cornwell 13. A girl and a glue gun 14. My Craftily Ever After 15. Maybe I Will 16. WhipperBerry 17. Paging SuperMom 18. All Things Thrifty 19. Ashlee Marie 20. The Project Girl

21. One Little Momma 22. Entirely Eventful Day 23. Diary of a Brown Eyed Girl 24. Tips from a Typical Mom 25. Utah Sweet Savings 26. Flats to Flip Flops 27. One Krieger Chick 28. What Meegan Makes 29. Simply Kierste 30. Live to be Inspired 31. HoneyBear Lane 32. Pretty Providence 33. Ma Nouvelle Mode - in FRANCE 34. MomEntity 35. Serger Pepper - in ITALY 36. Kiki and Company 37. Girl Loves Glam 38. Thrive

39. The Potters Place 40. Crafting in the Rain 41. Cooking With Ruthie 42. Delineate Your Dwelling 43. The Pennington Point 44. Bakerette 45. The Happy Scraps 46. Shannon Baird Photography 47. Tried and Tasty 48. Lionesses at the Gate 49. Fry Sauce and Grits 50. Lolly Jane 51. That's What Che Said 52. Sugar Bee Crafts 53. Your HomeBased Mom 54. Happiness is Homemade 55. The Crafted Sparrow 56. R&R Workshop 57. I Should Be Mopping the Floor 58. Sassy Steals

59. Let's Eat Grandpa 60. Being Spiffy 61. Sumo's Sweet Stuff 62. Ginger Snap Crafts 63. Bless This Mess 64. Apronista 65. Dreaming About Someday 66. Frenchie 67. Tastefully Frugal 68. Four Marrs and One Venus 69. Your Sister Circle 70. Over the Big Moon 71. See Vanessa Craft 72. Infarrantly Creative 73. Family StoryTelling

74. Albion Gould 75. Life as Mrs. Larson 76. Tried and True 77. Play.Party.Pin. 78. Bite of Delight 79. Ink Happi 80. ObSEUSSed 81. U Create 82. My Mommy Style 83. Find it Make it Love it 84. The Contractor Chronicles 85. Novae Clothing 86. Mommy Makes Things 87. At Home with Sweet T 88. We Like to Learn As We Go 89. House for Five 90. Organize and Decorate Everything 91. Sassy Southern Gurl 92. The Creative Mom 93. Keep Moving Forward with Me

94. The Benson Street 95. Mom 4 Real 96. Sowdering About 97. illistyle 98. The Crafty Blog Stalker 99. A Fiery Red Life 100. Cupcakes & Crowbars 101. One Sweet Appetite 102. My DayLights 103. Restless Risa

104. Sypsie Designs 105. Vintage Mother 106. Like Mother Like Daughter 107. 30 Handmade Days 108. Queen B and Me 109. Apples by Ashley 110. Boutique Cafe - in CANADA 111. Just My Little Mess 112. Bombshell Bling 113. Sarah Tyau 114. Taradara Make it 115. Capturing Joy 116. Ivory Lime Photography 117. Jenkins Kid Farm 118. Free Time Frolics 119. Bella Storia 120. Dana Ohlsen Photography

Ready in join in?Snap, hashtag and share! Tag @BrassyApple and @Peacefrom6Pieces if you can too!

Also follow our Bravery and Beauty PINTEREST board for more inspiration!

Anger stage of Grief

I wasn't sure I'd ever hit the anger stage of grief and so far I've kept it at bay. But as the days go on and I miss my dad more and more I find it creeping in. 

All the sudden I want my dad so bad I feel like throwing a full out two year old tantrum. Something like this...

I quickly (10 sec) pull my thoughts into check and tell myself angers not the way and a trantrum won't help. So I just cry and miss him extra hard for a bit. 

I worry I might be like a volcano and just explode one of these days. (I'm only human.) 

Is this normal? Anyone else felt this way? What helps you?

Pressure Diamonds Paradigm Shift

I love Rhonna Designs App and the opportunity she gives me to create pictures (above). 

I like to create inspirational pics especially on Sunday and as I was looking for something in the app this quote struck a cord with my heart. 

As this week I was overloaded with added pressures with acedemic struggling children I found myself sad and overwhelmed. When things are added to my plate without me choosing I tend to crumble for a minute (or an evening) before I pick up my big girl warrior panties and charge on. 

When I read this quote it gave me a paradigm shift... that I can accept the added pressures of life as an opportunity to create and conquer the warrior within me. The added pressures can be a gift to change and be better. Yes, even as I type this I cringe and say "I don't want to!" Haha just let those thoughts Go! (🎶 Let it go, Let it go 🎶 -Frozen) 

The truth is I DO want to be a warrior. I want my light and strength to shine bright like a diamond. The only way to do that is to let the pressures become an opportunity to conquer. 

My 2014 Word

This word came to me in July. I've been searching for the right definition of this word. I don't see this word in a fighting or war like manor. To me it means strength, virtue, service.

"Warriors are not born and they are not made...Warriors create themselves through trial and error, pain and suffering, and their ability to conquer their own faults." -unknown 

I will continue to create and conquer,

I AM A WARRIOR!

Its the word create that jumped out at me and made it perfect. I wrote this quote and thoughts in my phone 3 years ago. As I get older it's interesting to see the pieces of my life come together. I didn't know it then the Warrior God and I was/are creating.

My dad and I had many conversations about creating ourselves. When I told him this creating quote he loved it and we referred back to it in many of our life philosophy discussions. One of his life quotes was, "If it's to be...It's up to me!"

I owe so much of the Warrior I am today because of the guidance, belief and love of my parents. I'm so grateful. 

Whatever comes this year I will learn and grow, create and conquer, I will be the Warrior God wants and needs me to be. 

I'd love to lift each other up, if you have a pic or a quote that can do that share and use #warrior2014. 

It's All Special November Link-Up

Welcome to It's All Special: The Special Needs Link Up! This is It's All Special: November Edition, hosted by Mishmash Mama, Trust Me, I'm a Mom,and Peace from 6 Pieces through the It's All Special Community on Google+.

This month, our members are talking about "hope."

You are invited to link up your posts about hope and special needs parenting at the bottom of this post. If you missed last month's It's All Special, you can find it here. If you have questions, would like to co-host, or would like to sponsor a special needs appropriate giveaway, email Shannon at mishmashmamablog@gmail.com.

Your hosts are

Shannon @ Mishmash Mama

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

Cobilynn @ Peace from 6 Pieces

Google+

Facebook

Instagram

Michelle @ Trust Me, I'm A Mom

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

When you link up, please:

• Be on topic (silliness, humor, anger, honesty!) Old posts are fine.

• Follow your hosts

• Add our badge to your post, or link back here

• Comment on at least 2 other posts! Share the love!

• Use #ItsAllSpecial on social media

• Also, feel free to request membership to It's All Special, our Google+ Community

...and finally, enter this month's giveaway, sponsored generously by Doodler Crayons.

Doodler Crayons™ are reshaped fun crayons

Great for kids big or little! Perfect for art projects, unique gifts, stocking stuffers, or even use them as party favors!

Doodler Crayons is a family run crayon recycle shop that was created in 2009. We are located on a small farm in the beautiful valley of Crow, Oregon. If you are ever in the area stop by and say Hi! We hand-craft each crayon with detail, care and love. We support the environment, green America and local economy.

 

Link up your post below, then come back and enter the giveaway!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Don't forget your badge!

 

 

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Hope, It's All Special

Life is funny. As little kids we imagine our lives in the future. We create dreams, goals and ideas that we HOPE will be our reality. We learn from others what we want and don't want. We plan and prepare for all of our dreams to come true. We believe that we are on the right track as things fall into place and we make the right decisions in order to accomplish our goals. And then...

You're hit by a 2x4 (literally or figuratively) and our reality we dreamed of and planned on is no longer available to us in its entirety. It's changed somehow. Maybe you planned to be be married with 5 kids, two dogs and live on a farm, but you find out after your first baby you can't have any more. Maybe you planned to go to NYC and enjoy single life in the city, but instead while in NY you meet the love of your life and follow his dreams. Maybe life is just the way you planned when you get hit by a car while on your bike and your hopes turn into a fight for your life. 

In my life I feel like I've gone through a few of these reality altering experiences. Some of them I've welcomed and some of them I've handled like a two year old throwing a tantrum. Believe me when I say it's a lot easier to accept than resist because no matter what it is what it is. In my experience the life that is waiting for us to accept is better than what we hoped for. 

The Rock's diagnosis with autism has been one of these experiences and all my hopes and dreams for my sweet baby boy changed. My hopes and dreams for my son became simplified. My hopes for him became what most every other child takes for granted. My hope for my son is that one day I'll be able to have a conversation, a simple answer to a simple question like: 

Me "How was your day?" 

Him "It was good."

Me "I love you, buddy."

Him "I love you too, Mom."

This will be the most amazing conversation I will ever have in my life. 

My HOPE's for the Rock have become a belief, which I think are even stronger than hope. I BELIEVE that my son will one day talk with me, understand more than he does now and will be successful in the life he is meant to have. I don't know how this will all happen but because of my HOPE and BELIEF in him I continue to fight for him, work for him and accept the miracles that occur daily, you never know when it will all become our reality. 

What do you hope for? How do you keep your hopes alive? 

A New Normal without My Dad

I haven't written much about my dad's passing, it's just so hard to sit at the computer and try to write with tears streaming down my face. There's so many things I want to say and share. I know too many people whose parents have passed on this year and as we all embark on tomorrow, Halloween, the beginning of the end of 2013 and all the festivities that will happen in the next two months, I hope that by sharing a little of my thoughts will help us all.

When dad died I cried everyday for 3 months straight, since then it's only about every other day but sometimes more. I haven't erased his texts (the last one I ever got says "Love you", I've saved his voice messages (oh, how I miss his voice) and I treasure more than ever the tokens of love he's given me. The everyday stuff kind of goes back to normal and it's as if my dad's traveling like usual, but then Sunday comes and he's not at dinner, there's no phone call on my birthday and tomorrow he won't be here to enjoy my soup or wassail, that both my parents taught me to make. Right now at midnight I just realized I don't even have groceries for tomorrow. My coping mechanism has been to accept what's coming and only do as much as I can. I let whatever is coming happen and then decide what I can do in the moment. As I'm writing I'm realizing this is what I do. So I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes and if we'll have soup and wassail. It's not that I'm putting it off, I'm just allowing myself to relax a bit and only run as fast as my feet and broken heart will let me.

I have been blessed with many tender mercies, feelings, thoughts and inspiration that I know came from my dad and a loving Heavenly Father over the last five months. I am so grateful for these experiences, they have carried me through. However with every new day I create a new normal without him being just a phone call away.

Tomorrow, Halloween, begins a new holiday normal and I believe this will be the most difficult holiday season I've ever had. My mom goes all out for holidays and dad is always right there with her, I can't imagine how hard this will be for her. They both make the holidays special in their own way from the food to the gifts it is magical. I've never made Thanksgiving dinner without my dad either in person or over the phone. I think sometimes my brain would purposely forget just so I could call my dad and have him by my side. December we get together at least twice a week for something, it's wonderful.........And now we'll do all those things with a big empty seat at Thanksgiving dinner, without our song leader on Sinter Klaas and without a poem from Dad Christmas morning (these are little tokens of him).

I know the firsts will be the hardest, but I don't know if it ever gets easy to let go of the pain, it's as if I'd be letting go of him. I don't want to ever let go! I want to always remember and miss him like crazy.

I love the fact that everyday something reminds me of my dad, as if it's him saying hello. It can be anything from an image to a song. Today it was Katy Perry's new song Unconditionally. One of the last conversations I had with my dad, I told him I was worried he'd be disappointed in me. He then told me with all the love a dad can have that there was Never Anything I could do to make him disappointed and that he loves me unconditionally. I love you, daddy.

Party, YES! Halloween Costumes, NO!!!!!

Am I the worst mom IF I just dread coming up with Halloween costumes? Well I may be, but it's just not something I enjoy. I can throw a fun party any day (if I'm in the mood, Haha), but costumes are just plain no fun work for me. Sure, I think that all the costumes are cute and when I see Family Costumes I sometimes kick myself but then square my shoulders and accept that's just not me. I have done one or two family costumes throughout the last 13 years but not many and that's OK. 
To all you talented costume making moms, I sincerely applaud you and admire your work. 

This is the first year my girls 13 & 11 haven't had their difficult costumes planned since April. You know, when they talk about it for months and I still don't plan before Halloween how I'm going to make that work. Yay! They are growing up and out of costumes and I can let the guilt go.

Luckily my boys don't demand much from me. My 5 year old doesn't even like to be dressed at all. No, I don't let him go naked but I'm not about to fight to put on a costume neither of us care about. My 7 year old wants to be Fantasmic Mickey. That seemed easy enough, one trip to the Disney store and I'm done, right? Nope, they don't carry that costume. I am so lucky to have the most easy going boy and he's happy with what we've got left over from previous costumes to make it work.

I'm so glad time goes on and that all things come to PASS and not to stay. Even halloween costume designing motherhood time. Here's proof that I've done fun costumes and am good with moving on.

Board Games as Classroom Parties

Yep! You guessed it, I'm a Room Mom for my sixth grader. At our school the kids are privileged to  have classroom parties for a couple of holidays through out the year. With Halloween next week I thought I'd share with you how I took CLUE the board game and spun it into a full on party.

My daughter begged me NOT to have stations, but with 30 kids it's almost impossible to have a party in a classroom and not break into groups. I think what my daughter was really asking me to do was to have a cohesive party with a beginning, middle and end. What better way to do this than with a game.

I started with the lights off and window blinds closed so there was just a little light to set the mood. I was dressed up with a red ribbon around my neck and acted a little while another mom read a scary kids story "The Red Ribbon". When the story was over I explained with a "Dundunduuun" that we were going to find out who, where and how this happened to the woman with the red ribbon by playing a real live version of the game CLUE.

I split the kids into equal groups and had them each start at different stations. These stations were facilitated by other moms, who were all dressed up as characters from the game with some kind of resemblance to the room they were in (examples below).
Each group was given an actual board game CLUE sheet to record their findings.
At each station the kids had to do different activities, when the activity was completed the team was shown actual clue cards. These cards I divided up just like you do when playing the board game.
The kids rotated stations for the time we had allotted, at this point they all came to where I had displayed the game board in the classroom and placed the figures with who, where and how they thought the mystery played out.
I read the group suspicions and then pulled out the "Top Secret" cards and revealed the answer. This was also the CLUE as to where the classroom prize was hidden. The answer being Mr. Green in the Bathroom with the Rope. In the classroom bathroom I hid a plastic green jack-o-lantern full of glow it the dark necklaces.

Once the prizes were found the kids got to enjoy popcorn, soda and freshly made in the classroom cotton candy. The kids said it was the best party. Thanks to all the moms who made it all possible.

Here is how we divided up the characters, rooms and the activities we played...
   Character               Room                             Activity

Professor Plum    Billiards                       Dart Board (every kid got a turn until they reach the set amount of points)
Mrs. Scarlet          Lounge                Halloween Word Scramble

Mrs. Peacock    Dining Room          Blindfolded Safety Pin Dig (in individual rice buckets)

Mr. Green           GreenHouse               Spider Throw (similar to darts but with sticky spiders and a web from Target)

Cl. Mustard           Kitchen                 Fear Factor Blindfolded (everyday foods named something spooky)

Mrs. White             Library                        Charades (every child took a turn acting to receive their clues)

Top 5 Common Response to Autism

First of all I'm so excited to be a host for the very first #It'sAllSpecial monthly round up. I hope that you will share your posts with us and together we can uplift and inspire one another.

The older The Rock gets the more often I find it necessary to tell people he has autism. At the park the kids notice he doesn't talk and ask me why. Other kids ask him questions and he ignores them they ask why. Adults ask him how old he is and he won't look at them. When he was younger he could get away with this behavior and people would wave it off. Now it's not that simple. Sometimes I need to tell people he has autism for his safety. Most of the time I tell someone the Rock has autism I brace myself for impact because the "conversation plane" is about to crash.

Here are my top 5 common responses when I tell someone "My so has autism" AND what I wish I could say (only sometimes, sarcasm helps) and how I actually politely reply.

#5 "I'm sorry" with a frown

     WISH~ "I'm NOT he's the most amazing blessing in my life. I'm sorry YOU weren't special enough for him to be yours." 

      ACTUAL~ "He's an amazing boy!"

#4 "oh, awesome. Not that it's awesome he's autistic."

    WISH~ "Yeah, let me tell you what IS awesome! Watching you squirm." Jk that's mean and I'm too nice but sometimes I wish I could say that. Most of the time people just don't know what to say. I've done this myself. Ugh!

    ACTUAL~ "You're right he is awesome!"

#3 "How did you know?"

    WISH~ "He told me, duh?" or "I took a quiz online and diagnosis him myself." 

    ACTUAL~ "Two near death experiences and a lot of other signs" sometimes I share THE story if they ask more. 

#2 "He doesn't look autistic."

    WISH~ "You just can't see the mark right now. Ill show you later." Autism doesn't have "a look" and the spectrum is wide. When you say this it comes across as an accusation that the parent, doctors and specialists are wrong and you know more than anyone. 

     ACTUAL~ "He's beautiful and/or perfect!"

#1Common Response and the one I hate the most. Not the person just the question. "How autistic is he?" or "We'll he's high function right?" What if he's not high functioning and you just stuck your foot in your mouth again AND you rubbed salt into an open emotional wound. 

    WISH~ "You tell me, he doesn't speak independently, we've never had a conversation, he whines or screams at me for the last to help him and its a guessing game all day (that I rock at, NOW), he's constantly in danger if I let him get out of my sight for more than 5 min., he doesn't play with friends, he obsesses over movie trailers, he gags at most foods." On and on I could go. 

      ACTUAL~"mildly severe still learning to talk although he rocks at swimming, climbing and jumping." It's ok to focus on the positive. Our kiddos need to hear us talk about their talents and praise them. It feeds their spirits when we do. 

Here's some suggested responses, that I'm grateful to hear on very very rare occasions, therefore not on the "common" response list. 

"He looks like a great kid!"

"He's a cute kid."
"You're a lucky mom, he's special."
Give any other kind of compliment. We are all fighting a tough battle and we can use all the encourage we can give one another. Inspire one another by focusing on the positive. This quote is a good one.