*DISCLAIMER: IF YOU ARE A GRANDPARENT OF MINE YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST SKIP THIS ENTIRE POST – I guess grandparents and any LDS readers of mine that are easily offended by the subject of SEX and bleeped out words*
I almost don’t even know where to begin with my raving about probably the BEST series I have EVER read. The Fifty Trilogy starts with Fifty Shades of Grey, then moves into Fifty Shades Darker and is finalized (I hope this changes) to Fifty Shades Freed.
This trilogy touches an area that most people might be uncomfortable to talk about, but lucky for you I. AM. NOT. SEX! Controlling, dominating, insanely delicious SEX. This story follows a very successful dominating man who wants a very pretty girl that literally stumbles into his office as a submissive…. the journey between them is a journey that you literally cannot stop – no matter how badly you want to. The dominating sex scenes will make you blush and at times have to walk away from your book, compose yourself and then find yourself rushing back to the book for more.
I can honestly say that my life is forever changed from this series. I look at my marriage differently, my sex life differently –ACTUALLY SEX IN GENERAL DIFFERENTLY, and I think my husband is forever changed as well…. I honestly think he’s considering reading the series to fully be on my level.
This book is not just about sex – even though the kinky fu*%ery and the vanilla deliciousness in the book is AH-MAZING – there is a story, a journey, and a character development that is by far one of the best I’ve seen yet. You go through fifty shades of emotions, which includes emotions that you probably have never experienced before. Every aspect of this book right up to the very last page will stay with you probably forever.
Words of Christian Grey “We aim to please” And pleasing me is exactly what he did!
I got to a point with my little internet corner that I needed to get away from it. It really wasn’t mine, and it felt wrong. It never should feel that way, but when you have people merely coming to pick your posts apart, that’s sortof how it goes.
I’m hoping that my long {very long} blog break has given the people who aren’t really here to read the words I have to say and see how my family is doing a break of even thinking about dissecting my words….. hopefully they’re all gone for good!
SO I’m back. I have no guarantee on my blogging schedule, or if I’ll even bring back Just a Motivating Monday, but I’m back.
I had this absolutely delicious break from school that I took the opportunity to read…. and read…. and read…. and READ! I’ll have a blog post coming out on some of the amazing books I have been reading lately. For those of you who have been googling What to read after Beautiful Disaster, I promise you’ll be happy.
I’ve been feeling at such a lost for words, which is weird to me – I have so much going on through my mind and heart, but trying to voice it all…. even through typing here is difficult. I don’t know what’s going on with me here, but I think that also has something to do with me not updating my blog as often as I used to. I used to be able to voice what I’m thinking, what I’m feeling – but right now it’s stuck.
So I’m okay – I’m alive, my kids are okay and alive.
I’m adding a new little addition to Enchanting Havoc. I LOVE Goodreads and think it’s amazing that after I write a review about a book over there that it gives me the html to post it over on my blog. SO – you all get the exciting reviews that I’m going to be doing on all of the trashy, young adult books I’m highly addicted to! If are a member of Goodreads you can find me {HERE}
I really wasn’t sure what to think about this book in the beginning, but found myself excitedly drawn to it. I loved the Facebook status updates and messages – I knew that something else major had to be going down and that kept my interest. This book has a way to just knock the wind out of you as it all unfolds. There are tears, laughter and a beautiful romance that I couldn’t help but just LOVE! Flat-Out Love is a feel good, satisfying read!!
I don’t even know where to possibly begin with this book. There are so many emotions that have gone through me from when I first started this book to days after I finished.
Travis is hands down the man of my book dreams. The relationship between him and Pigeon drew me in to fall in love with him over and over again. It’s a rarity for me to find a book like this that totally captures me to the point of hardly being able to shake the feelings that I felt while reading it – even days after – Beautiful Disaster is hands down the most beautiful disaster I have ever read!
On Thursday I gave a persuasive speech on Homeschooling in my public speaking class. I got such amazing feedback from both my teacher and my classmates, so I thought I’d share it here to not only get my readers to understand a little about why I homeschool, but why many others make this decision as well.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child. I’ve seen the village, and I don’t want them anywhere near my child.”
According to National Home Education Research Institute, in 2010 there were approximately 2.35 million homeschoolers and this number is growing at a rapid rate of 8% per year. A study done with homeschoolers showed that 90% were happy that they are homeschooled, and 80% will homeschool their children as well.
The needs of our children should always come first! Children need to not have budget cuts affect their education, and budget cuts are making it so that there are less teachers and larger class sizes. My son Jayden spent his 2nd grade year being moved from his 2nd grade class back to his 1st grade class due to budget cuts. He was still in 2nd grade, just learning among 1st graders…. very weird! When we have larger class sizes, kids are being left behind and getting confused, because a teacher with 30 students in their class CAN NOT give each child the individual attention that they NEED.
Children do not need to go to a place where they ever feel threatened by their peers and be expected to learn in the same threatening environment. Bullying is a HUGE situation in all of our schools, and is a topic I could talk about all on its own, but while it’s a HUGE issue with why I homeschool, it’s not the only one. When it comes to the teachers being able to ensure that their students are in a positive learning environment and monitoring how the students are treating each other, we have to question if this is even possible! How can a teacher monitor this with so many students in their class? A mere dirty look from a peer can upset a child so much that they don’t focus on a word the teacher is saying.
Homeschooling is the perfect alternative to these things that our children NEED.
There is no teacher in this world that will ever love and care about your child’s education more that YOU. That in itself gives you the tools that you need to homeschool your child. Homeschooling your child gives you the means to train and influence them the way you see fit. You don’t have to worry about them picking up values from a child who has parents that mentally abuses him – in which he then goes and does the same to others. YOU get to be the influence in your child’s young life. Through a homeschooling journey you will increase your family unity and closeness. Your children will respect you more as not only their parents, but also as their teacher. Your children will receive a better education through homeschool. According to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, homeschoolers outperform public school students in ALL subjects by 30-37% – that is HUGE.
You might think that homeschooling is too expensive and you can’t afford it. Well, a study was done on 20,760 students and this is what was discovered:
· Parents that spend $199 or less – the students scored an average in the 80th percentile
· Parents that spend $400-599 – the students scored an average in the 80th percentile
· Once the parents spend over $600, the students do slightly better, scoring in the 83rd percentile.
The message is loud and clear here, more money DOES NOT mean a better education.
Social interactions are a huge concern with parents when it comes to homeschooling. They fear that their children won’t be getting the “healthy” social interactions that their children need. Through my experience, my child’s social life has progressed in ways I never thought were possible. In the public school system he had a negative social life, with kids who never treated him the way he should be treated. Through homeschooling I am able to provide a positive social experience for him through extra activities, play dates, and homeschool groups.
Just imagine the feeling you would have inside as you got to watch your child go from not grasping something in school and being the one to go step by step through the process and helping them to grasp it. YOU being the one to teach them. It’s an amazing feeling. You get to high five them, hug them and celebrate with a pizza party! Imagine knowing every day that you are creating a positive environment for your child to learn and grow in. You don’t have to worry about them being bullied, influenced by the wrong crowd, or falling behind and being forgotten.
I would never ask for anybody to ever just dive into the world of homeschooling without doing their own homework to make sure that it’s right for their family. I gave you today some very important factors that not only have made up my decision, but the decision of many homeschoolers. There are many FREE resources for you to seek out like…..
Yesterday was not the best homeschool day. We were about 15 minutes into it when I said… forget it! At first I felt stressed out about it, and then the most peaceful feeling came over me…. it’s okay. It’s okay to have a day where Jayden isn’t clicking with the program.
That is the joy of homeschooling.
So, I let it go and we continue on….
Happenings going on in our homeschool life -
Jayden is currently learning 3 digit by 3 digit multiplication and doing GREAT! The only problems he has is when he forgets about the number that he carries over, and I’m trying to figure out a great way for him to grasp this step and not forget it. We’re still having issues in the writing department and am probably going to just buy a 4th grade writing curriculum that will help with special needs children…. if there is one! His biggest issue is getting his ideas to go from his brain onto the paper. It’s November and we haven’t had the most structured start to the year, but we’re making it and we LOVE this journey.
Ella is now adding and in the beginning stages of reading. We’re using the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and WOW! The results are QUICK and AMAZING!!!! She feels so proud of herself, which she should!!! These are the two main things we’ve been focusing on with preschool. I have lots of scanning to do with all of the things she’s been working on so that I can start compiling her yearly homeschool book.
Jayden and Ella have been spending a LOT of time getting ready for the bug fair happening Tuesday with our homeschool group!!! We’ve been learning LOTS about dragonflies and butterflies and are compiling poster boards for the fair. Once they’re all completed I’ll upload pictures.
I hate that I haven’t had the time to be updating much on here about our lives – especially our homeschool adventures, but my plate has been so full! I’m taking 12 credits this term and am keeping a 4.0 GPA, so with my homework load, my photography sessions, my custom art orders and homeschooling and being a mama to these kids and a good wife to my husband, my blog {and reading blogs} has fallen into the cracks a bit. I was looking at my blog today and thought… how sad – this is basically my only form of journaling our lives and there’s hardly ANY blog posts from this year…. and it was Aliyah’s first year! Thank Goodness for my Cozi calendar or I’d have no memories recorded.
Oh, MY ALIYAH!! I have to get my bragging on…. she’s GORGEOUS. She’s turning 1 this month and is cruising all over the house by pushing things, and stands on her own two feet and dances to music with her hands flailing in the air – but refuses to walk. It’s okay with me, because that just means she’s still my little baby that needs me to carry her. It’s so crazy how different each child can truly be. She only has 2 teeth, but I think she’s working on more…. since she screams the majority of the night.
All in all we’re doing great and just inching towards the goals we’ve set. Gino and I are working on a dream board and have our goals set and know what we have to do to get there. It’s almost exciting to think that where we are is just a temporary thing, and while it’s a great and amazing thing, we have SO MUCH TO LOOK FORWARD TO! I really lucked out with marrying him. He just knows how to keep our minds focused on the future and what matters.
I know Aliyah’s 11 months already, but I haven’t done 11 month pictures… so here’s her 10 month picture I did. I know it’s so mean that she’s crying, but I LOVE her cry face.
AND I’ll leave you with a video – at the end Aliyah’s tongue comes out just like her two cousins… SO CUTE!
Why is it that when I am hurt inside and I voice it I’m wrong? Why is that every other person thinks they have a right to judge how express myself and tell me that the way I go about things is wrong?
This is MY blog. This is where I JOURNAL MY FEELINGS and it’s not always beautiful, and it might be about certain people, but THIS IS MY PLACE! If people have an issue with the things I write about on my blog then they have no business being here. I am not a hermit that hides inside of myself with my feelings…. my feelings are put out there, voiced with words and displayed for anyone to read them. Blogging isn’t for everybody, but blogging is for me.
I’m tired of people always throwing me voicing myself online in my face. THIS IS ME…. THIS IS WHO I AM. Stop coming here to psychoanalyze every single blog post that I write, because believe it or not… YOU are not the sole focus of my life. And if you find yourself in a blog post of mine and don’t want to be…. then don’t do things that tempt me!
I’m preparing myself for my church’s semi-annual conference this weekend. I think we live in some pretty amazing times to have a prophet living on our earth and Heavenly Father speaking through him. I absolutely love my church and feel so blessed to be a part of it. I have been spending a lot more time than usual studying my scriptures, praying for understanding, and really feeling strong things within me.
I’m a girl that struggles with faith. I like the seen and not the unseen, and things need to make perfect sense to me. I sometimes will pick things apart and think to myself…. ‘Really?’ If there were a God would he really expect us to walk so blindly in this life trying to find Him? Yes, things like this absolutely enter my mind…. and a lot! But, I can’t shake the feeling in my soul when I am sitting at church, or when my children do something that makes me feel so blessed to be their mother. It all boils down to love with me….. I just don’t see how there could be love with no God. So, I have to walk in this life grasping to the wonderful things that God has put on this earth to help guide us back to Him. I have to realize that it might not all make sense, and I might not be able to wrap my head around it all – but that’s the point of faith.
I’m searching for balance in my life. I have what I would call an ideal life with a borderline perfect husband and three kids that make me who I am and who I strive daily to be; three kids I couldn’t imagine my life without. I have a passion in art and creating and growing and being and life – a passion that hasn’t always been there. I have school for myself and my children and it is very time consuming….. and then there’s a household to run. Not to mention…. being a MOM. I think I struggle with living in the moment and putting my full attention to whatever I’m doing. If I’m working on homework I feel guilty that I’m not with the kids, if I’m with the kids I feel guilty about homework…. it’s something that I need to work on. I need to allocate my time better and only have certain times for art, certain times for homeschool, certain times for my homework and so forth…. I need balance.
The creative bug has been soaring inside of me lately, and I’ve just been trying to go with it. I want to create a coffee table book of all of my art pieces I work on. If you haven’t checked out my {etsy shop} yet, that’s where they’ll be for sale. I’m using art to speak the quotes that I love and feel are important. I love words. I love words so much, because they’re such a powerful force in our lives – in ourselves, in our relationships – almost in every aspect of our lives…. words touch all. Words are my inspiration in just about everything.
I dream of journals. I dream of a really beautiful, expensive, perfect pen and a blank page. I think my problem lately has been that it’s just about the blank page though. I have struggled to actually put things down – where do I start? I finally started my scripture journal thanks to the ridiculously amazing Red Headed Hostess. Seriously – she is downright INSPIRING.
I’ve decided to just pick topics that I really want to learn about and dive into every scripture on those topics. My first topic is patience, because Lord knows I need patience more than anything. Parenting might come so easy to others, but it doesn’t to me. I know I’m not a bad mom, but I know I’m not the best. I struggle with patience and am grateful to know that there are many books, scripture verses and Ensign talks that will help me become what my children deserve….. an extremely patient mother. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not so impatient my kids are unhappy… it’s just I’m not as patient as I would like to be. AND the #1 google search that brings people to this blog is “Being a mom is hard.” People, being a mom isn’t all rosy flower petals…. sorry! If you happen to think that it is then you are living in denial. It’s okay to admit that it’s hard. It’s okay to admit that you need to better yourself ALWAYS when it comes to parenting.
I went on a little trip and chose to listen to inspiring things instead of music on my trip. I got so much out of everything I heard, but one thing has stuck in my head so strongly – our journals, library and pictures are some of the most precious treasures that we can leave behind. How true is this? If we spend our life trying to learn and grow and find all sorts of quotes, scriptures and philosophical things that help us in our journey, then sharing it with the generations to come is the best thing ever. SO – I have a new goal… I’m determined to complete a set of marked scriptures and a completed set of journals for each child of mine. I feel like I will know in the end which scripture and which journal belongs to which child.
Something keeps coming up in a lot of my readings: who you surround yourself with is who you will become. I keep finding quotes like this in almost everything I’ve been reading. My favorite one is from Oprah {who I have never watched on TV except when the Twilight cast was on… weird huh?}
“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.”
I almost felt like God was trying to say something to me. I sat back and thought…. I’m pretty happy with the people I surround myself around…. but then I started thinking about people I don’t hang around. People I should be reaching out too, but instead found myself JUDGING. YES, I found myself judging people I really don’t even know. Even more interestingly enough is that I was judging these people right along with people I was surrounding myself around. So, here’s a big AHA moment – if your friends are judging other people and you find yourself doing the same thing right along with them then are these friends that are more than likely going to lift you higher? HECK NO! These types of friends are going to be judging you on everything in your life and probably talking about it with another one of their friends {that they are judging}. It’s sortof a vicious cycle.
I am REALLY focusing on who I am surrounding myself around. My absolutely most favorite book EVER {The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews} says this:
“I will choose my friends with care. I am who my friends are. I speak their language, and I wear their clothes. I share their opinions and their habits. From this moment forward, I will choose to associate with people whose lives and lifestyles I admire.”
Can you get any more deep than that?! These are the little golden nuggets I want my kids to read about and apply to their life. I’ve always been highly selective on the people I allow in my life – and people sometimes think I’m stuck up, but that’s not the case. Unfortunately, sometimes my friends choose to be friends with people that I see as a person I would never admire nor want to be like so I choose not allow those people in my life. I hope that my children will choose the people that they surround themselves with, because I want them to only be around people who will lift them higher.
It’s official! The {etsy store} is up and running and I couldn’t be more excited! There will be a lot more added over the next couple of days, and things I’m so excited to be offering!! If you missed the prior posts on what I’m doing -
It’s no secret that I’m love photography, and pictures – and I don’t think that it’s too big of a secret here that I LOVE LOVE LOVE QUOTES! I’ve decided to team the two up together and start an etsy store offering things like this
and this
Basically, I’m offering custom work to take your pictures and turn them into a piece of art with words that are dear to your heart to last a lifetime. I envision these art pieces being past down generations and truly cherished.
I will also be doing custom work with just words and no pictures like this:
and custom cards and announcements kindof like this one
These are just things I’m so passionate about and I truly enjoy digital art and designing. So now I offer my work to others through my new etsy store{Quotastic Beauty}. The products that I’m offering are so sentimental and personal and make the best gifts if not for your own home and soul. I created Quotastic Beauty to take memories to a completely different level for my clients. I want their pictures to tell a story to keep alive for generations to come.
I will be offering one of my readers a $50.00 gift certificate to my etsy store!! Here’s what you need to do –
Leave a comment on this post telling me what you would like to have from the store for your entry.
Additional Entries:
Become a follower of my blog {Enchanting Havoc}
Follow me on twitter
LIKE Amanda Garibay Photography’s {Facebook Page} {This will be the same Facebook Page for Quotastic Beauty}
Tweet about the giveaway! You can do this once a day through the duration of the giveaway. Copy & Paste this tweet: Come win a $50 gift certificate to the new Etsy Shop Quotastic Beauty by @EnchantingHavochttp://j.mp/rmG82l
Make sure for each additional entry that you leave a separate comment. GOOD LUCK!!!!
I once thought I had life figured out at the young old age of 18. I laughed when people told me that as I grow older I learn more and more about life. I'm 28 and I look back at that young, clueless kid and giggle. I'm soaking up life, and stumbling along parenthood, being a wife, stepping in the kitchen. But I'm learning so much along my way. So much about me, my husband, my faith, and what a good parent is all about. I welcome you to join me in on my journey of life.
